Wed November 14, 2007
Century Center's owners plan renovation
By Steve Lackmeyer
Business Writer
The 30-year-old Century Center Plaza is, by the admission of its owners, a relic that is in dire need of change.
"The space has just languished for decades,” said Matt Cowden, who manages the plaza along with the adjoining Sheraton hotel. "But the new owners are very serious about changing that and are prepared to put a lot of capital into it.”
With crews already gutting office and retail space dating to the early 1980s, the owners, American Property Management, are hoping to convert the second floor of the plaza into ballroom and meeting space and the first floor into retail.
Construction is expected to start within the next few weeks. Within the next year, Cowden said, the plaza at 189 W Sheridan Ave. will feature 16,000 square feet of new convention space on the second floor.
"Add that to our existing 25,000 square feet and we will have over 41,000 square feet of total meeting space under one roof,” Cowden said. "That will make us the largest convention hotel in Oklahoma City.”
The plaza, the only real retail built during the urban renewal era of the 1960s and 1970s, opened with a mix of restaurants, gift shops, clothing stores, a fitness center and even an FAO Schwartz toy store. The second floor was filled with offices during the oil boom of the early 1980s.
But by the mid-1980s, the plaza was an empty shell in a downtown decimated by job losses. Three years ago, Wiggin Properties was hired to lease the space — but broker Clay Moss thinks the current owners are the first ones ready to make changes needed to attract tenants.
He notes American Property Management made the plaza a priority when it first bought the hotel and plaza earlier this year.
Gutting the space is the first step toward helping prospective tenants see what's possible, instead of being limited by what was built 30 years ago, Moss said.
"It's horribly dated,” Moss said. "It's nonfunctional, there isn't a lot of lighting, and you can't see anything.”
Moss said retailers are interested in exploring options at Century Center Plaza — and appreciate it's location along Sheridan Avenue. In the past few years additions to the immediate area have included new hotels, an expanded convention center and Ford Center.
Moss also predicts the southwest corner of the plaza, Robinson and Sheridan avenues, will become a gateway to the "core to shore” development planned for the next decade between the current Interstate 40 Crosstown Expressway and the Oklahoma River.
Moss said re- tail also has a better shot at success in the plaza's first floor because more parking is availa- ble in the above garage since City Center Ga- rage opened across the street.
Moss and Cowden said costs of the overall renovation are not yet available. They are awaiting news on whether the concrete facade can be removed and replaced with glass store fronts.
Both men agree the current facade is an eyesore.
"Apparently, we're finding out that a lot of the concrete is just decorative precast, and it's not structural,” Moss said. "That would be unbelievably good news.”
Century Center: Renovation
Sheraton Century Center, finally redone!!!!
Originally Posted by Watson410
Bookmarks