Dowell Center

[bison34]

My understanding is that this building is under contract for sale and will be converted to apartments.

Not sure of the buyer, but my money is on Dick Tanenbaum who has already converted The Montgomery, Park Harvey, Classen Tower, and Lincoln Plaza. He's also in the process of converting two properties along Broadway into the Harlow and will soon start conversion work on the Robinson Renaissance building.

An out-of-state developer is well along in converting the old downtown Holiday Inn into housing called The Pulse.

Love this! That location will do well as housing. I love that OKC is getting into the act of converting these unused or under used buildings into housing. They were a little behind on that, but are catching up quickly.

I know sharing Oklahoman articles isn't cool, but this is a nice piece by Steve that covers no new ground, but it's a good, large summary of what's going on with downtown housing conversions.

https://www.oklahoman.com/story/busi...n/75163646007/

[Pete]

Remember that a couple of months ago in the Dowell Garage thread, there was speculation that this was happening because Dowell was trying to get an easement closed so he could sell the garage.

The garage is connected to Dowell Center through the Underground.

This building is very chopped up due to the way that an old building was expanded to the east. Dowell had a fantasy about leasing to small office tenants but of course that never materialized.


This is the last big vacancy downtown and has been sitting empty for decades; a black hole while all of downtown has been built up or renovated all around it. Thank goodness something is finally going to happen here.

Also, I hope the new owner does something with that hideous parking garage, by far the biggest eyesore in the new downtown era.

[SagerMichael]

This might be the best news I’ve ever read on this website.

[DowntownMan]

The garage is connected to Dowell Center through the Underground.

Connected with a three block walk thru underground.
But def an added benefit for apartments. The park Harvey doesn’t have any parking that tannebaum owns nearby. So would be a benefit for sure.

[Pete]

Pretty extensive list of big projects involving downtown's largest buildings over the last couple of decades:

Devon Energy Center (new construction)
BOK Park Plaza (new construction)
Omni Hotel (new construction)
First National Center (complete renovation and conversion to housing and hotel)
BancFirst (complete renovation)
Strata Tower (complete renovation)
City Place (complete renovation)
Pioneer Building (complete renovation)
Arvest Tower (substantial renovation)
Park Harvey (renovation and conversion to housing)
Old Downtown Library (renovation and conversion to housing)
Dowell Center (proposed renovation and conversion to housing)
101 Park & 100 Broadway (under renovation and conversion to housing)
Robinson Renaissance (proposed renovation and conversion to housing)
Holiday Inn (under renovation and conversion to housing)

Assuming Dowell Center gets a total redo, that would leave only the Telephone Building at 405 N. Broadway as an empty large downtown structure.

[Southsider2]

This is great news no doubt. I could definitely see it being GT.

I also know that there's a group from St. Louis that specializes in these type of deals and has been looking for opportunities in OKC.

[PhiAlpha]

This is big time for street life downtown.

[Mississippi Blues]

Attachment 16426

Shout out to what was lost, errr covered.

I have no idea how the expansion in the 60s impacted the original design but if it could be uncovered and viably preserved in a meaningful way, I would combust from joy. I’m just happy to hear something should be happening soon either way but man, what a building.

[Heartokc]

It isn’t Tanenbaum but it is a group that is very capable and has done this type of project before. I am cautiously optimistic contract hurdles can be cleared and this deal gets done. It is high time.

[Heartokc]

Pete, I got your message but cannot reply because I’m new here. It says I have to wait 90 days?

[HOT ROD]

This will be huge! If we can get this developed, imagine the pedestrian activity day and night in the CBD. We can "finally" break away from the dead-zone CBD designation and get some more quality retail/restaurant streetfront mix throughout the cbd (especially filling in Park Avenue).

[Pete]

Pete, I got your message but cannot reply because I’m new here. It says I have to wait 90 days?

Please contact me at pete @ okctalk.com. Thanks.