Bricktown Canal announces 25-year milestone celebration

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - The City of Oklahoma City is looking to host celebrations in wake of the 25 year milestone of the Bricktown Canal.

The Bricktown Canal is one of nine projects built as part of Oklahoma City’s original MAPS initiative, which voters passed in 1993 to revitalize downtown, improve OKC’s national image and provide new and upgraded facilities.

Today city leaders announced on Friday, Oklahoma City’s mile-long iconic waterway, the Bricktown Canal, will celebrate its 25th anniversary on July 2, kicking off family-friendly Independence-oriented festivities.

• July 3 - Red White and Boom! Free concert at 8:30 in Scissortail Park hosted by OKCPHIL orchestra and featuring Maestro Alexander Mickelthwate and special guests Jay Gleason and Audrey Logan.
• July 3 - Fireworks at the Flagpole. Free concert hosted by the Bricktown Association and the Oklahoma Opry featuring live music from Mallory Eagle, Kyle Earhart, Cindy Scarberry, Dustin Jones, The Oklahoma Opry Band and special guests.
• July 4 - OKC Baseball Club will end their game against the Las Vegas.
• July 5 - OKC Baseball Club will end their game against the Las Vegas.

“The Bricktown Canal is the vital anchor for Bricktown’s thriving entertainment scene,” Mayor David Holt said. “It has served as a catalyst for private investment for 25 years. That growth continues today with new experiences still being planned and built along the Canal.”

Those interested in experiencing the Bricktown Canal by boat and learning about Oklahoma City’s unique history can purchase tickets for a 40-minute ride on a Bricktown Water Taxi.

The Canal helped transform Oklahoma City from a place nobody wanted to visit to a place people go out of their way to experience,” Water Taxi CEO Chad Huntington said. “In 1999, our guests were almost exclusively locals trying to see what the fuss was about, and now we speak daily to visitors from all over the world.”

Here are a few of the projects coming to Bricktown according to city leaders in the next decade:

• The Truck Yard, a food truck park, beer garden and live music venue, is anticipated to open in late summer near the Land Run Monument along the Canal.
• The Oklahoma Opry is raising $6.2 million to relocate their headquarters to a three-story warehouse along the canal at 19 E California Ave.
• Construction is slated to begin in 2025 on a $41 million multipurpose stadium funded through Oklahoma City’s MAPS 4 initiative. The venue will be capable of hosting high school, collegiate and professional sporting events and concerts. It will be operated by OKC Energy FC.
• $1.5 billion mixed-use development from Matteson Capital and Thinkbox called The Boardwalk at Bricktown. The development is expected to include a 480-room hotel, 1,907 residential units, dining, retail and plazas.

To build the canal, contractors had to dig up California Avenue from the railroad tracks to Walnut Avenue, then they extended the canal south to near what is now the Oklahoma River, according to City leaders.

The Bricktown Canal opened debt-free on July 2, 1999, for $23 million.