Demolition project nears in Oklahoma City

The city council of Oklahoma City this week approved a demolition contract to dismantle a convention center to make way for a new arena to house the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Local reports indicate Council already had approved a contract for construction firms selected to build the new arena, located in the city’s central business district.

Officials received four bids for the project, with the lowest one coming in at almost $11.5 million. The city accepted a bid from Bedford, Texas-based Midwest Wrecking Co.

A news release indicates salvage activities at the former convention center already are underway, and demolition will begin in the next few weeks and is expected to take six to eight months.

“We’ve removed nostalgic items from the [convention center] like a medallion that was embedded in the floor, light fixtures with section numbers on them, flags and some of the seating,” says David Todd, a program manager at the Cox Convention Center. “The center will be torn down wall by wall over the next few months.”

The $900 million arena, 750,000-square-foot basketball arena will be called the Paycom Center, carrying over the same sponsored name as the current home of the Thunder. Design of that building is underway, with construction expected to start in 2026 and completion scheduled for 2028.

The facility to be demolished has been standing since 1972 and was expanded to about 275,00 square feet in the 1990s to become a multipurpose facility that could host sporting events and concerts.

In its final few years, after a larger venue was built in Oklahoma City, the building housed movie studio sound stages, hosting some scenes in the movie “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

Winning bidder Midwest Wrecking Co. is no stranger to large projects, having taken down multistory office buildings in Texas, including one that used implosion as a technique.