Place
For decades, a small airport occupied a stretch of land along the south bank of the Oklahoma River, just across from downtown Oklahoma City. When the Downtown Airpark went bankrupt in 2005, its runways and hangars left behind an unusual opportunity: a large piece of land close to the city center that could become something entirely different.
The Humphreys family purchased the property at auction in 2006. Blair Humphreys and his team eventually set out to turn it into Wheeler District, a new neighborhood built around connected streets, a mix of housing, local businesses, and public spaces.
The project did not begin with houses.
In 2016, the team installed a vintage Ferris wheel that had once stood on California’s Santa Monica Pier. The wheel, a large OKC sculpture, and early events gave people a reason to visit the former airpark before the neighborhood existed. Concerts, cycling races, and other gatherings helped establish the site as a destination while the development team worked through planning, financing, and infrastructure.
A public design charrette led by Dover, Kohl & Partners in 2014 helped shape the neighborhood plan. Construction of the first residential phase began in 2018, and the first residents moved in the following year.
Today, Wheeler has completed residential blocks, pedestrian-oriented streets, shops, restaurants, a brewery, offices, and Western Gateway Elementary School, a dual-language public charter school serving families from the district and surrounding neighborhoods. The former airport terminal has also found a new use as Terminal Commons, an all-day café.
The neighborhood’s design brings different activities close together. Compact cottages sit along pedestrian lanes. Taller townhomes add housing without requiring large lots. Live-work shop homes place small commercial spaces at street level, with residences above. Parks, sidewalks, and connections to the Oklahoma River provide places to walk, cycle, and gather.
Wheeler remains a work in progress. Its 150-acre master plan is intended to unfold over multiple decades, with additional housing, businesses, streets, and public spaces added in phases. But the first pieces already demonstrate the central ambition: turning land once devoted to aircraft into a new neighborhood connected to the life of Oklahoma City.
Building Wheeler has required more than designing attractive houses.
The development team had to establish a new street network, utilities, public spaces, and a financial model for building an urban neighborhood on land that had long been separated from the surrounding city. A public-private partnership helped make that infrastructure possible, with the developer taking on upfront risk and becoming eligible for reimbursement of authorized public improvements after their completion.
The project’s incremental approach is especially notable. Rather than attempting to build all 150 acres at once, the team began with a smaller residential phase and expanded as the neighborhood developed. Its first 14 acres include 83 single-family homes, 10 live-work shop homes, and The Big Friendly Brewery & Taproom.
The housing types were also designed to make more efficient use of land. The original Pedalers Lane cottages range from approximately 600 to 1,200 square feet on compact lots along a pedestrian street. Three-story detached townhomes provide another relatively dense housing option, while shop homes allow residents to combine living space with small businesses or offices.
The team has also treated public life as something to establish early rather than wait for at the end of development. The Ferris wheel, cycling events, markets, and public gathering spaces helped create an identity for the district before its residential and commercial buildout was complete.
That sequence distinguishes Wheeler from a conventional subdivision. The project is not simply adding houses to vacant land; it is attempting to create the streets, businesses, institutions, and shared spaces that allow a neighborhood to function as part of a city.
The work is still ongoing. Phase Three began in early 2025 with infrastructure and utilities, an extension of Spoke Street, and plans for more than 50 additional homes across nine acres. The larger master plan remains flexible as the district grows and community needs change.
Wheeler’s long-term success will depend on how those later phases connect to the surrounding neighborhoods and whether its mix of housing, businesses, and public spaces continues to support everyday life. Its completed blocks already offer a tangible example of a different approach to urban growth: building a new neighborhood within the existing city rather than extending development farther outward.
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