I was on the tour. Marion was fantastic. I'd live there in a heartbeat. Rents seem to run around $1.60/ft and up. Basement studio (600-ish feet) was $975. Completely awesome upper floors, 2 beds, etc were approaching $3K if I heard right.

Super excited that they retained the historic mosaic tile entry and restored the ornate staircase, which we were told was about 70% original due to damage/wear/rot. I saw them 15 years or so ago when I was involved with Automobile Alley Main Street, and was afraid they had been lost.

After the tour we went across street to Broadway 10 to hear from the developer, architects and the construction co, plus Broadway 10 partners. Good Q&A followed. It was a great time.

So do you have to be in the super secret VIP club to have a shot at renting these, too?

I was on the tour. Marion was fantastic. I'd live there in a heartbeat. Rents seem to run around $1.60/ft and up. Basement studio (600-ish feet) was $975. Completely awesome upper floors, 2 beds, etc were approaching $3K if I heard right.them 15 years or so ago when I was involved with Automobile Alley Main Street, and was afraid they had been lost.

You heard right. This is from Brianna's article about the tour.

http://www.oklahoman.com/article/5399900&headline=One%20of%20downtown%20Oklahoma%20City%27s %20oldest%20structures%20is%20inhabitable%20once%2 0again


Tenants are expected to begin moving into the renovated Marion this spring. Rental rates range from $975 to $2,700 a month, for basement units to third-floor units.

975 is cheaper than a lot of one bedroom units right now.

No doubt. But just to be clear, it's a studio. Bring your futon.

No doubt. But just to be clear, it's a studio. Bring your futon.

Ah, gotcha. My studio at 430 Lofts was 850.

Very freaking nice.

Ah, gotcha. My studio at 430 Lofts was 850.

How many square feet? 430 ;-)

How many square feet? 430 ;-)

Similar to the basement studio at 600-ish.

March 23-24 2015

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Happened to catch Chris Fleming from the top floor window. He would later greet me at the front door by name, which was cool. Never met him.

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Chris Fleming and Mickey Clagg

There's way too many inside photos to post. Here are some...

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Chris Fleming and Mickey Clagg

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Chris Fleming and Mickey Clagg

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Stairwell

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Old and new

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Living space...

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Top floor:

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Basement:

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Basement window views...

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPwkeOjZs-s

Wow. Those are so neat. I would totally live in one.

But where is leasing info?

Excellent pictures, Will! Thanks for posting them here.

This project just goes to show that no building is too far gone to save, if one has the vision and is willing to shell out the $$$ to do it.

Amazing job by MidtownR again. Thanks for the photos Will.

I was by this today, and maybe it's just my taste but the exterior of the building still has an unfinished feeling to me (I'm assuming all the touch-up has been done). Things like re-painting the original Marion sign on the side of the building, or cleaning up the brick a bit more would give it a more polished/finished feeling...maybe it's because my brain has gotten used to the other MR renovations that have a lot more polished exterior.

I was by this today, and maybe it's just my taste but the exterior of the building still has an unfinished feeling to me (I'm assuming all the touch-up has been done). Things like re-painting the original Marion sign on the side of the building, or cleaning up the brick a bit more would give it a more polished/finished feeling...maybe it's because my brain has gotten used to the other MR renovations that have a lot more polished exterior.

I agree.

Edit: And thanks for the photos, Will. But can we try and keep the number of photos posted in the thread to a minimum? Many of us use our phones to view OKCTalk, and this page alone with all of the photos is 32MB. Just a few minutes of surfing on OKCTalk with a lot of photos can really grind through a data plan. Unfortunately there's no warning on which threads to avoid -- once the page is loaded that data in the plan is gone.

Edit: And thanks for the photos, Will. But can we try and keep the number of photos posted in the thread to a minimum? Many of us use our phones to view OKCTalk, and this page alone with all of the photos is 32MB. Just a few minutes of surfing on OKCTalk with a lot of photos can really grind through a data plan. Unfortunately there's no warning on which threads to avoid -- once the page is loaded that data in the plan is gone.

Ditto.

The exterior does look like it needs a top coat or sealant or something, it will eventually develop a general patina that should help.

I agree.

Edit: And thanks for the photos, Will. But can we try and keep the number of photos posted in the thread to a minimum? Many of us use our phones to view OKCTalk, and this page alone with all of the photos is 32MB. Just a few minutes of surfing on OKCTalk with a lot of photos can really grind through a data plan. Unfortunately there's no warning on which threads to avoid -- once the page is loaded that data in the plan is gone.

Maybe we could have spoiler tags around the photos if there's going to be a bunch. That way you have to click to reveal them. If it's just one or two pics, then you wouldn't need to do that.

I was by this today, and maybe it's just my taste but the exterior of the building still has an unfinished feeling to me (I'm assuming all the touch-up has been done). Things like re-painting the original Marion sign on the side of the building, or cleaning up the brick a bit more would give it a more polished/finished feeling...maybe it's because my brain has gotten used to the other MR renovations that have a lot more polished exterior.

Chris Fleming spoke to this recently when I was participating in an organized tour of the building. The ghost sign is being left in that state intentionally because it is considered a "preserved" sign rather than a "restored" sign. He didn't say this directly, but considering the fact that they leveraged tax credits in the project they were probably required by SHPO to not repaint the sign, if it were contributing to the tax credit calculations. The same could also be true for the brick and the choice to paint, not paint, seal, not seal, etc. Historic preservation of a building and restoration/renovation are different animals. In this case they opted for preservation, probably in an effort to attain as much tax credit-worthiness as possible.

Regarding the paint remaining on the brick, they opted for the older bare brick color rather than the white paint, which occurred later in the building's history. HP tax credits were probably also a factor in this, though again he didn't specify that. He said that they looked into cleaning the remaining paint off, but that doing so would have been likely to damage the brick's finish as old brick is much softer and more fragile. I can tell you from my Main Street training that sand/soda blasting was vigorously discouraged, because once you take the baked finish off of soft historic brickwork they will start to soak up moisture and have problems like cracking and spalling due to the freeze/thaw cycle. They will just let weathering take off the remaining paint.

Here is an example of spalled brick, not a good thing for a fragile historic building like the Marion:

http://www.stonehengemasonry.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/IMG_1653.jpg

He did say that the sign might be repainted someday, if for instance it becomes totally unreadable. If that happens I would bet it happens after the 5 year period required to qualify for tax credits. They can be taken back if you alter elements that made the building qualify withing five years of receiving them.

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I have to admit, I'm a little surprised that the brick wasn't repointed on the interior of the building... It would have made it look nicer and made the brick wall just that much stronger.

Maybe we could have spoiler tags around the photos if there's going to be a bunch. That way you have to click to reveal them. If it's just one or two pics, then you wouldn't need to do that.

Or even use thumbnails that you can click on to take you to Flickr where the larger photo is posted. Thimbnails don't take up hardly any space at all. I had to reload 32MB of pictures again just to make this reply. I've visited this thread 3 times today and thus have spent nearly 100MB of my data plan just on this one thread. (iPhone doesn't cache pictures so reloads them every time)

I took this on Saturday as I was running by:

10761

10797

Housing history: Landmark designation could protect Marion Hotel from future changes
By Molly M. Fleming
The Journal Record

OKLAHOMA CITY – A recently restored building could be placed on the city’s historic landmark list.
The Marion Hotel, 110 NW 10th St., is already on the National Register of Historic Places, but that doesn’t ensure changes would be historically correct. Midtown Renaissance Group started restoring the former hotel in 2014, and the project was finished earlier this year. It is now home to 10 apartment units.

The entity spent an undisclosed amount renovating the property, including $1.5 million to make sure it was structurally sound. A future owner could still make changes as allowed by the Downtown Design Review Committee, however. Now, the city has a way to make sure the building will be historically protected.

Midtown Renaissance Developer Chris Fleming said the group was approached by the city’s Historic Preservation office to consider listing it as a historic landmark.

“If you look at posterity, we spent a lot of time and money and effort to maintain the historical character of that building,” Fleming said. “By applying this (historic landmark) zoning, we have a lot of faith that the work we put into restoring it to keep it in its historic condition will be maintained beyond our ownership.”

He said the group doesn’t plan to sell the property.

The building will be considered for historic landmark status during Thursday’s Downtown Design Review Committee meeting. If named a landmark, all revisions – whether by Midtown Renaissance or another owner – would have to go through the Historic Preservation Commission. Fleming said the group does not have any plans for changes to the property.

The Marion Hotel was built in 1904 as part of the first wave of construction of flats in Midtown. It was a place of class, with newspaper references including numerous items on the society page describing card parties, luncheons and meetings of women’s social organizations.

The commission took the initiative to get landmark status, said Lisa Chronister, principal planner for the city’s urban design division. She said it is one of the commission’s responsibilities to make recommendations for historic landmark sites. She said she was pleased that Midtown Renaissance is willing to work with the city on protecting the work it did at Marion. The last building to be listed was Calvary Baptist Church in 2007, before it was renovated by the Daniel Davis law firm.

“We appreciate the city’s stewardship in this case when it comes to historic preservation,” Fleming said.

The Marion: A Story Restored - 405 Magazine - November 2015 - Oklahoma City (http://www.405magazine.com/November-2015/The-Marion-A-Story-Restored/)


Nice little article I ran across today.