First National Center

[gopokes88]

I was thinking back to some of the name suggestions for the hotel in this property because I don't care for "The First" (assuming they opt to stick with that). What about "The National" instead?

No matter, it's awesome to see this building coming back to life!

https://twitter.com/garydbrooks/stat...12611847262208

So are you Gary brooks?

[HangryHippo]

https://twitter.com/garydbrooks/stat...12611847262208

So are you Gary brooks?

Holy hell - that's funny! Lol. But no, I'm not Gary. He has great taste though.

[Pete]

Holy hell - that's funny! Lol. But no, I'm not Gary. He has great taste though.

He reads here pretty religiously.

[HangryHippo]

He reads here pretty religiously.

Well, I hope he liked my suggestion. I'll have to have a drink in the place I helped name. : )

[Kemotblue]

That's one of several shots we captured last night for Cornerstone, but this is the only one they've shared on social media. Two notes on the lights: 1) The beacon light is on, but it doesn't rotate; and 2) I'm told that all of the crown lights haven't worked in decades (some did/some didn't) - and they've been making repairs for weeks. To see what we saw during last night's filming was breathtaking!

CloudDeck Media I was leaving the Thunder game that night I looked up at the city skyline my jaw just dropped when I saw the top of the tower all lit up thenI noticed the beacon. I was like WHAT! I posted on twitter immediately and it got alot of re-tweets. It was so nice seeing that tower lit once again. I anxious to know if they plan on restoring the beacon completely with both lights rotating and use LED fixtures in the renovations. Thanks for your posts too of the photos it was breathtaking. Good things for Downtown.

[Joe Kimball]

I'm thrilled to see such a monumentous effort to regain control end well. I have no doubt that this will be completed...now I can look toward Tulsa's Philtower with not jealousy, but with fraternal admiration in kind.

With regard to the beacon situation, I thought I read that it was always fixed. It's not as if it's a complex matter to get it rotating in either case, especially if restoration to the degree of asbestos remediation is being undertaken.

[CloudDeckMedia]

CloudDeck Media I was leaving the Thunder game that night I looked up at the city skyline my jaw just dropped when I saw the top of the tower all lit up thenI noticed the beacon. I was like WHAT! I posted on twitter immediately and it got alot of re-tweets. It was so nice seeing that tower lit once again. I anxious to know if they plan on restoring the beacon completely with both lights rotating and use LED fixtures in the renovations. Thanks for your posts too of the photos it was breathtaking. Good things for Downtown.

Thanks for the compliments. All our work that night is licensed to Cornerstone, but I'll post more images and videos when it happens. - Tom

[gopokes88]

https://twitter.com/garydbrooks/stat...64213151174656

I have a feeling Gary brooks is a good twitter follow. Seems to tweet out tidbits of info every few days. He also doesn't have a bunch of followers (yet), so if you have a suggestion he'll likely see it.

[Pete]

More details on the redevelopment of First National Center

New owner Gary Brooks has provided a graphic that illustrates how the complex will be reworked into a boutique hotel, apartments, retail and a large parking structure.

First National Center is actually 3 separate structures: The 33-story historic Tower built in 1931; the 14-story Center building finished in 1956; and the East building opened in 1974.

The Tower will be extensively renovated and be home to a new hotel to be operated by Coury Hospitality, which was behind the remakes of the beautifully-done Colcord and Ambassador hotels in Oklahoma City. Like First National, both those buildings had previously been used as office space.

The Tower also contains two 14-story wings that extend east from the larger structure, with an open space between. That open space reaches all the was to skylight of the Great Banking Lobby below.

The marble and mural lined space will become the lobby for the hotel as well as a cocktail lounge. Other restaurants and bars are planned for the complex as well.

Atop the northern wing will be a new pool area; 149 rooms are planned for the hotel on floors 2 through 8 with 210 apartments above.

The Center and part of the East buildings will be gutted and used for parking, approximately 620 spaces.

A section of the East building fronting Broadway will be completely demolished to make way for parking entrances and exits as well as the ramp structure needed to service the huge parking structure.

The facades along Park Avenue will be preserved and 2 levels of retail space face Park Avenue.

In 2014 the City of Oklahoma City commissioned a study to identify ways in which Park could be enhanced as the primary retail corridor for the central business district and the First National property was prominently featured.

The sale to Brooks and Charlie Nicholas closed last week and work is expected to start soon.

[mugofbeer]

This is a wonderful project and I hope all goes well for the developers!

[Spartan]

This is what I was referring to earlier.



Is the planned parking ramp permanent, or a place-holder use until another tower is built there?

[Pete]

It's permanent. Only way to get in and out of the massive parking structure.

[bombermwc]

its been a long time since ive been in the building, but can someone remind me what's in the center and east buildings now? I thought there was a garage in there somewhere, but i could be nuts. but im having a hard time imagining the repurpose without demolish if the areas are garage already....no way they built regular flood decks to parking standards and just shove offices on top of them. Just need a quick memory refresh please.

[Timshel]

its been a long time since ive been in the building, but can someone remind me what's in the center and east buildings now? I thought there was a garage in there somewhere, but i could be nuts. but im having a hard time imagining the repurpose without demolish if the areas are garage already....no way they built regular flood decks to parking standards and just shove offices on top of them. Just need a quick memory refresh please.

Are you thinking of the Main Street garage, which is directly to the south and is accessible from the newer portion of FNC?

[Anonymous.]

its been a long time since ive been in the building, but can someone remind me what's in the center and east buildings now? I thought there was a garage in there somewhere, but i could be nuts. but im having a hard time imagining the repurpose without demolish if the areas are garage already....no way they built regular flood decks to parking standards and just shove offices on top of them. Just need a quick memory refresh please.

I am pretty sure those are office floors. I also don't understand how they are "converting to parking" - unless that means demolish all except the exterior facade and build a garage on the other side.


I love this project, but I am not sure how I feel about the majority of this block being parking garage now.

[Pete]

The office floors will stay intact, but will likely need to be reinforced.

The flat floors will be accessed by a series of spiraled ramps built in place of the demolished section of the East building along Broadway.

[Plutonic Panda]

It a huge fan of the huge accommodation that will be made for parking. Seems there could have been a better way to do it but I am just happy this is getting done either way.

[bombermwc]

I am pretty sure those are office floors. I also don't understand how they are "converting to parking" - unless that means demolish all except the exterior facade and build a garage on the other side.


I love this project, but I am not sure how I feel about the majority of this block being parking garage now.

Im sure this has been done somewhere else, but it just seems kind of "iffy" to me. It would be one thing if it had been built to hold things like a datacenter with concentrated weight. Most people dont realize how much weight a normal office desk (and the crap in it....say filing cabinets) can add to an area. But the density of a parking garage seems like it's a LOT more than that. I'm a crazy here?

[Pete]

I've read the loads in parking garages are often less than in office buildings.

[hoya]

I've read the loads in parking garages are often less than in office buildings.

That is quite surprising to me. Would have never guessed.

[baralheia]

I mostly love this project, but honestly, I'm not at all a fan of converting the center and east buildings to parking garages. I know parking is (currently) a necessary evil in downtown, but it seems to me like expanding the Century Center parking garage instead (by rebuilding it to be much taller) would make more sense. I dunno, maybe I'm crazy, but I do rather fear that this office-to-garage conversion just is not going to work well (because the buildings weren't designed to be a parking garage), and that we're going to regret not keeping those buildings for office space or residential space.

[Pete]

^

They looked into adding more parking on top of the Century Center and had to scrap the plan due to cost.

The East and Center buildings have been largely vacant for a very long time.

I'm pretty sure the parking won't be obvious from the outside.

I really don't think we're losing much here, other than old Class C office space that kept reflecting negatively on the downtown occupancy rates.

[baralheia]

Well, that is disappointing. Though the silver lining to this, I suppose, is that as long as they leave the core of the buildings intact, they could always be converted back to office space later. The Six Penn Center (1701 Market Street) building in Philadelphia was done this way - they converted the lower half of the building to parking, utilizing an exterior ramp system to funnel cars into the building's floors. But because they didn't modify the core structure of the building, they've been able to convert parking space back into office space as needed. Hopefully this garage conversion is done this way so that the space can be reclaimed later.

[Pete]

Right, I don't think the sections of those buildings that will remain will be altered much at all.

So, if there was ever the need or desire, they could easily convert all or part back to office or even residential.

[HangryHippo]

Stupid question, but because of the National Park Service ruling, does this mean the facades facing Park Ave. can't be altered?