They've mainly been doing interior work and are working on getting the sign working soon. I know historic tax credits, design work, etc. can get delayed for months. The way I understood it was this is a project that will take several years.

I am delighted that the Tower Theatre will be renovated. It was a great movie theater and I hope they will somehow bring it back to its prior condition. I was last there when they were showing Rocky Horror, a few years ago, and it was pretty run down even then.

I live very close to that area and am hoping it will be the start of something good. I, too, like the tattoo/piercing shop and other stores there...with the exception of the junky restaurant supply store down the street. It needs to go.

It is so nice to see my OKC coming back and doing well...the oil bust days really took a toll on our part of town to say the least.

:sofa:

Back in the days when 23rd and Walker was the center of the "uptown" shopping area with Kerr's Uptown being perhaps the most prominent store, the Tower was a very posh theater. It was unique in that it had two box offices. One was in front at the main entrance on 23 rd, while the other was in back, facing a parking lot behind the theater.

Thanks for the update, It is good to hear that this is still moving along. I hope that the entire area along 23rd will make a comeback.

Anyone have an update on the project? ODTG??

NW 23rd needs this in a major way.

They've been working on it. Since they are using some federal funds, it's taking longer than it normally would. I know they have started work on the new sign (restoring the old one), not sure when it will be up.

The latest that I have heard is that a contractor is lined up, financing is in place, negotiations are proceeding with a restaurant/event catering tenant and work in earnest should get going by mid-November for sure.

Do we know, yet, the specific use plans for the Tower? Will it be a revival movie house or a music venue or more of a special events place like Will Rogers?

this is from their website:

Tower Theater Receives Grant From National Parks Service
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK —The Uptown Development Group, LLC has recently received a $15,000 grant from NPS Route 66 Preservation Committee. The money is a matching grant and is earmarked for the restoration of the historic Tower Theater sign.

Non-Profit Uptown 23 is focused on improving the 23rd Street Corridor. (www.uptown23.org)

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK — Uptown 23 a 501-C3 business and property owners association formed in 1993 to support the revitalization of an important section of the NW 23rd Street Commercial Corridor between I-235 and Villa Avenue.

Presently, we are working with the Oklahoma City Planning Department to develop new zoning ordinances for the area which will promote the establishment of new neighborhood commercial businesses, restaurants, services and entertainment venues. At the top of our list of priorities is the reopening of the historic Tower Theater. We believe that the events and activities of this important multi-purpose venue and its restored landmark marquee will serve as a beacon to energetic entrepreneurs and real estate investors who will in turn provide the driving force for the ongoing revitalization of Oklahoma City's most important street.

Do we know, yet, the specific use plans for the Tower? Will it be a revival movie house or a music venue or more of a special events place like Will Rogers?

A multi purpose venue will occupy the ground floor, which will be flattened and stepped 7" every 15' along the existing slope. This will allow a variety of tabel/chair setups for events ranging from music concerts to corporate meetings to graduations to stage plays to whatever. The balcony will retain it's existing seating (about 250) and a ceiling mounted drop down screen will make that the weekly film night venue. The whole place can also be used for film if needed. A bar with limited food service will serve the balcony. Offices and meeting spaces will also be on the second level. A restaurant & bar will occupy most of the street side retail space and a movie memorbellia shop may be opened in the small retail space just east of the lobby. If all goes well, the fabulous TOWER marquee will be shining brightly by early spring 2008 and open by October/November.

All sounds GREAT!!!

Thanks, ODTG.

So it sounds like they are trying to repeat the Will Rogers revamp...to an extent. It's not quite the same area when comparing to Western, but I hope things work out.

One word of advice, maybe alter the sign a little bit so the big box trucks can't run into it again...or for the millionth time.

I met with these guys once and they went over their plans. They have some great ideas and I think they will do a great job.

One word of advice, maybe alter the sign a little bit so the big box trucks can't run into it again...or for the millionth time.

The historic TOWER marquee will be restored to its original design. The sidewalk will be widened to eleminate the parking lane under the marquee and protect it from further damage.

Thank goodness. I hate those parallel parkers along 23rd anyway. They don't look before they open their doors, and half of them don't even park next to the curb so then you have to swerve to miss them, all the while being crammed in because of the median landscaping!

Uptown update: Wednesday, January 9, 2008


Slowly but surely for theater, owners say
Owners of the Tower Theater along the NW 23 Uptown corridor say they still are planning a $2 million renovation despite continued delays.

Scott Fife and partners Marty Dillon, Matt Goad and Terri Sadler-Goad bought the theater and adjoining store fronts at 425 NW 23 in November 2005. At the time they hoped to start work within a few months, with the theater reopening as a performance venue with adjoining restaurants and a coffee shop.

But their plans were delayed as they worked with city and state officials on tax credits, federal empowerment zone and Route 66 grants. Fife said Tuesday they since have been approved for tax credits, but are working with a potential investment partner with more experience in property management.

"It's been a slow go,” Fife said. "But things are moving forward.”

From Staff Reports

So far it really seems just like all the other supposed restore jobs at the place. Talk for months and months and months, but nothing ever happens.

It's interesting to note that the Sieber Hotel went through five years of delays before it finally got started.

Thank goodness. I hate those parallel parkers along 23rd anyway. They don't look before they open their doors, and half of them don't even park next to the curb so then you have to swerve to miss them, all the while being crammed in because of the median landscaping!

Perhaps you should drive a more narrow vehicle or choose an alternate route.

Or maybe the idiots that park along there should just use their brains and pay attentino when they get out of their cars??? Hm.

bombermwc, the median and urban design is for a reason, to encourage slower, more aware traffic as well to enhance the urban beauty. Park of the urban lifestyle and environment is to encourage pedestrianism and to use less space.

That's fine, but don't swing your door open when there's a line of cars coming...wait until there's an opening in traffic. I've actually seen doors torn off cars on 23rd before from these morons.

I know people are capable of paying attention. Those folks in the big box trucks from the hotel/motel resellers do a better job of parking and pulling in/out than people in normal size vehicles!!!! Seriosuly, I don't worry about driving next to the box trucks, but someone in a Honda Civic...that makes me nervous.

Is this project still alive??

it's going very, very slowly, but from what I hear, yes, it's still alive. I'll check in soon with the owners.
-Steve

it's going very, very slowly, but from what I hear, yes, it's still alive. I'll check in soon with the owners.
-Steve

Seeing the Will Rogers marqee refurbished and lit up has me excited for the day when the Tower marqee is back.

I assume the slow pace is due to the historic tax credits...

The pace is excruciatingly slow due to several factors, but in general it is the complexity of all aspects of the project. The good news is, as they say, that the project is still moving forward, but don't expect any big announcements before mid-summer.

The pace is excruciatingly slow due to several factors, but in general it is the complexity of all aspects of the project. The good news is, as they say, that the project is still moving forward, but don't expect any big announcements before mid-summer. It's mid-summer - any updates?

I have heard that the current ownership group is trying to sell the theater.

Yes, it's listed for sale on loopnet.com - the MLS of commercial real estate.

How disappointing.

Wow. What a bummer. Not a good news day today. Banta's buildings for sale and Tower Theatre.

Oh, I don't know about that. The building sales involving MidTown may turn out to be pretty good news. I'll try to report on that this next week. As for the theater, Scott and his crew are great folks, very likeable, had very admirable ideas and they were talking to the right people. But at the end of the day, they had no development experience, and that's a tough place to come from when you're tackling such a tough project. If they sell to the right people, it might not be a bad thing. I'm curious whether the folks in Heritage Hills and other surrounding neighborhoods will take a pro-active stance and help recruit the right people to buy and fix up this strip.
Old Downtown Guy --- this is where you're supposed to speak up and let us know what you think!

Well just like I thought, the people crapped out and wasted time and money and didn't do anything. So where was that support you were touting DowntownGuy? I'm so tired of people not committing to this project. Yes its going to cost a lot of money. You should know that going in. Either put the money in it or don't start. People just keep wasting time holding on to the place while someone else could have been working on it.

Old Downtown Guy has put a lot of time and effort into this without any compensation or any promise of return other than an improvement to his neighborhood. I'm not saying anyone is right or wrong here - but a tightening in the finance market has made development difficult for even the most experienced developers. How is it fair to berate ODG?

The credit markets have affected everyone, we have had several office projects put on hold down here in Austin because of it, even with large multi-national developers because they can't get the financing to move forward. Even though our economies in OK and TX are doing pretty well, since so much of the finance world is national or worldwide now that puts strains on the financiers who have to cover for losses in places like California and Florida. One of the disadvantages of global finance instead of local finance.

it sux for my partners and i because the electro lounge (where we do our wed. night weekly) was planning on moving into the tower complex. however, we should have our own place soon. i was really excited about this tho.

Hmm, I wonder how long it will take for someone else to buy the Tower and finally renovate it? I'd like to see it become a music venue with a bar/lounge. Getting the Tower renovated and being used again, and the sign lit back up, really is the KEY to revitalizing the 23rd street corridor IMO. With such nice neighborhoods on the north (Edgemere Park) and south (Mesta Park/Heritage Hills) I've always wondered why this strip was so rundown as well as the few blocks on either side of it??

I wonder if we need to see more new infill development -- which is generally cheaper and thus easier to make cash flow and get financed -- before some of the redevelopment makes more fiscal sense.

Renovation by it's nature is almost always more expensive and risky than something built new. With the plentiful big gaps in and around Midtown, we may need to see more density (and thus scarcity) for some of these projects to happen.

Well just like I thought, the people crapped out and wasted time and money and didn't do anything. So where was that support you were touting DowntownGuy? I'm so tired of people not committing to this project. Yes its going to cost a lot of money. You should know that going in. Either put the money in it or don't start. People just keep wasting time holding on to the place while someone else could have been working on it.

Thanks for your interest in this project. If it turns out that uneducated opinions will actually accomplish anything, I'll let you know.


Oh, I don't know about that. The building sales involving MidTown may turn out to be pretty good news. I'll try to report on that this next week. As for the theater, Scott and his crew are great folks, very likeable, had very admirable ideas and they were talking to the right people. But at the end of the day, they had no development experience, and that's a tough place to come from when you're tackling such a tough project. If they sell to the right people, it might not be a bad thing. I'm curious whether the folks in Heritage Hills and other surrounding neighborhoods will take a pro-active stance and help recruit the right people to buy and fix up this strip.
Old Downtown Guy --- this is where you're supposed to speak up and let us know what you think!

First, the people who presently own the Tower have poured their hearts and pocket books into this project. They have a good design from Brian Fitzsimons and very workable business plan. However they have not been able to attract the necessary financing to continue the revitilization of this important landmark building.

A group consisting of members of surrounding neighborhoods met a couple of months ago and will be getting back together in the next few days to discuss the opportunities we have to make the Tower project more attractive to a new developer.

I will continue to post on this thread as I have anything relevent to report. Thanks to everyone that has expressed their support of and concern for 23rd Street.

Thanks for your efforts, ODG.

Sounds like you have the best interests of your neighborhood and the broader community at heart and OKC needs more concerned and activist citizens like yourself.


I'm sure this project will happen at some point, it is just going to require some patience. The most important thing is that it is preserved.

I think I would be willing to volunteer a weekend of work at this place to see it get the attention it deserves from a devoloper, or the general public.
The current owners should organize an event like this. Seems like a good opurtunity for a grassroots effort.

Great idea. Count an old man in!

I'm all for preserving it, but it's had plenty time to have something done. You know the place is going to need some demo, paint, etc. Things that the community can come help out with. Obviously you don't want every joe off the street helping out because they need to be competant and know how to handle historical places, but there a lot of us out there that would help out.

If someone had "poured their pocketbook" into it, we would have seen some progress after what 3 years of them owning it. If it's a sound plan, then there are plenty lending opportunities out there. It's incredibly easy to get financial help, you just have to actually look for it. You can't use the economy excuse in OKC because it's not true here.

I'm just so sick and tired of all these people flowing through the place and just wasting time. It's just like the Skirvin project. The people of the city know what potential is in the building and people keep making promises they don't keep. Is it going to take the city to get The Tower done too????

Lending institutions are all connected nationally. The economy DOES affect these types of projects.

not at the bank of bombermwc

bombermwc, it sounds like you're pretty high on the potential success of the Tower Theater. Why don't you go ahead and finance the project so it can continue to move forward?

Often times you need someone to get a project started and they can only take it so far.

I'm really grateful this group got the ball rolling and came up with a vision for this property. I'm sure they are more disappointed than anyone that they haven't been able to pull this off -- at least to date.

But I think it's incredibly unfair to criticize them or the project in general. We need more of these types of efforts.

There are many costs associated with projects like this that the public never sees. The architectual & engineering costs on these projects would make most people choke. These must be done and approved before the first screw is turned.

There are many costs associated with projects like this that the public never sees. The architectual & engineering costs on these projects would make most people choke. These must be done and approved before the first screw is turned.

It seems they should have done more feasibility studies and determine the final or projected cost before announcing the renovations. It was even stated that the investors/owners did not have a lot of experience in development?? Perhaps another developer will come along and make this happen. This would be great especially restoring the "Tower Neon Sign" to its original self.

One of the things the Tower Neighborhood Working Group is looking at is how we might gain control of the Tower facade through an easement to one of the non-profit groups in the neighborhood and raise the funds to restore it. There are already some Historic Route 66 matching grant funds available for that work. We will also look into doing some work with the area's parking lots and finding a way they to attract some public or grant money to upgrade and landscape them.

We are not looking for volunteer labor to clean out the theater or anything like that, but we might organize a litter pickup on a Saturday later this fall or early spring as a way of involving the community at large and attracting some attention to the Tower project.

I'm sure that there are a number of people around town that have the same opinions as bombermwc and though I understand the frustration, I don't have much patience with them. Urban preservation and redevelopment projects are terribly difficult and those who haven't had any direct experience in a similar undertaking might want to learn a little more about the subject before they start jumping on people they have never met. Of course, this is a public forum and people are free to say what they like and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Finally, anyone with spicific ideas, wanting to volunteer some time to make some phone calls, do some research or make a tax deductible contribution toward refurbishing the Tower marquee can do so through Uptown 23 Development Corporation, a 501-C3 non-profit, via US mail to 315 NW 23rd Street, OKC, 73103. The funds donated for this effort are being held specifically for, and will be used 100% for the Tower marquee project. Also, feel free to private message me about this.

Thanks for all the supportive comments.

It seems they should have done more feasibility studies and determine the final or projected cost before announcing the renovations. It was even stated that the investors/owners did not have a lot of experience in development?? Perhaps another developer will come along and make this happen. This would be great especially restoring the "Tower Neon Sign" to its original self.
Feasibility studies require one facet of financing, every step is usually a different financing package, so a project can be effectively stalled or terminated at any step along the way. We have projects here that are pretty much completed, the initial funding was approved and they were basically told that the project was a go a year ago. So we do CD's and get ready to submit for permit and are told to hold off because now the funding is stalled because of the rest of the economy, not what it is like in OK or TX.

As CuatrodeMayo stated, financing is all tied together nationally if not internationally. Your local bank may be your "source of funding" but if is a large enough project they can't commit that much of their assets to one project so they look to "sell" the project to a national financier. Our Lake Travis project is still stalled, it has gone from overseas banks to bonds, etc. It is stalled because of the national crunch, not a local one. There are very little "local" financing anymore. Much of it has to do with the bust in the 80's, most don't want to get tied up in one market segment and get caught short like IndyMac did or WaMu may with defaulted mortgages. We are agonizingly stalled on many projects because of this.

Thanks for the informative post bluedogok.

Well I'll close my trap when something has actually happened.

ODG, do you have an estimate on how much the sign restoration is going to cost?

I heard that the total cost would be around $50,000. I thought they had received some sort of grant to restore the sign so I don't know if this is the cost after the grant or before.

At one time I believe that the budget was in the $50K range, but the sign has continued to deteriorate and costs have continued to rise. I think it is more likely to wind up costing at least $75K. I believe that there is a $15K Historic Route 66 grant already in place for the sign work.

I heard that the total cost would be around $50,000. I thought they had received some sort of grant to restore the sign so I don't know if this is the cost after the grant or before.

I was told that number was just for the neon lighting.

It appears that the Tower Theater is getting a new roof. Has anyone heard what is going on if anything?

That is the first work I have noticed since I moved nearby months ago.

Roofing replacement is about to get underway on the retail/office space fronting 23rd which includes the theater lobby as well as the auditorium poriton of the theater building. There is some renovation work on the second floor office space that should begin in a month or so. There is no work taking place on the theater portion at this time.

I have been meeting with representitives of the surrounding neighborhoods and City Council to find a way to get this project moving. It is terribly important to this area and the city as a whole to get the theater shaped up and in use. There are dozens of high quality musical and other performance acts passing through Oklahoma City every week in route to other cities that have venues of the same size and type as the Tower. If the Tower was in business, the place would be booked at least 3 nights a week.

2009 is the year that the T O W E R lights go on or my name isn't . . . . what ever it is.

Michael

Pray For World Peace . . . pass it on