Sieber Apartments

[metro]

1305 N. Hudson
owner=Marva Ellard
cost=$8,000,000 renovations
start=1926 originally
finish=2006 renovations
height=6 story hotel space, 2 story grocery annex (predates hotel actually)
30 apartments and 8 lofts.


Information & Latest News

Robert Sieber He was a noted purveyor of fine meats and sausages which was distributed in a 4 state area. The grocery building was built first in 1924 and the 6 story hotel followed in 1928. Both buildings were listed on The National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

The two buildings have undergone an extensive renovation beginning the fall of 2006. When complete, there will be 5,000 of ground floor commercial space, 30 apartments and 8 loft style units.
Links

Project Website
Doug Loudenback article
Gallery

[Midtowner]

This has been in the works for years. I've known about the recent plans for sometime and the funding coming together finally, and now you have it folks, its now official!



Council approves loan for Sieber Hotel

By John Sutter
The Oklahoman

The Oklahoma City Council approved Tuesday a $1.5 million loan to renovate MidTown's boarded up and gutted Sieber Hotel into an apartment complex with ground-floor business space.
The approval came after the city first rejected the loan in 2002 and then passed a "resolution of intent" to make the loan a year later.

The Sieber Hotel, 1305 N Hudson Ave., is considered one of the biggest eyesores in MidTown, an area just north of downtown that the city has been working to revitalize in recent years.

Part-owner of the hotel, Marva Ellard, said renovations of the Sieber Hotel would not be possible without the city loan.

"We've always planned on their (the city's) participation, but it's very gratifying, and a big relief, to have that behind us," Ellard said.

Construction on the hotel should start in about six weeks, Ellard said.

Money to back the loan comes from a community development block grant intended to help renovate the Oklahoma City area devastated by the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Building.

The Sieber Hotel, which was built in 1928 and is considered a historical landmark by preservationists, has been boarded up for almost 20 years. Ellard said she and four business partners plan to transform the hotel into 38 apartments for rent with about 5,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, possibly including a restaurant.

Ellard said it will be a "huge step" and could fuel a surge of money spent by property owners to improve MidTown.

Costs of Sieber Hotel renovations will total about $8 million, with $2.7 million from federal and state historic tax credits and $3.2 million in loans from a private individual, backed the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The city expects to have its loan paid back in about 20 years.

[Pete]

Great news!

Midtown really needs the help and has so much potential.


It will be interesting to see what they charge for rent... We need some reasonably priced units in that area.

[metro]

Wouldn't you like to know if I know about plans for the Marion? mwah ha ha ha ha ha

[Midtowner]

Wouldn't you like to know if I know about plans for the Marion? mwah ha ha ha ha ha

Actually, yes... yes I would.

[metro]

it wouldn't be a secret if I told you MidTowner or perhaps I know nothing

[Midtowner]

Oh come on.. if you told me, who would I tell?

[Midtowner]

Oh come on.. if you told me, who would I tell?

[Midtowner]

-- for future reference, only hit the reply button once with this new software.

[metro]

From the OKC Business, you can also view photos on www.okcbusiness.com

Sieber approved for $1.5 million
View the pictures
Posted: Tuesday, January 17, 2006



By Pamela Grady

pgrady@okcbusiness.com

The Oklahoma City Council today approved a Murrah District Economic Development loan from the Supplemental Community Development Block Grant funds in the amount of $1.5 million to Sieber Holdings LLC.

The loan will be used to assist in financing the rehabilitation of the Sieber Hotel building, 1305 N. Hudson Ave., which has been boarded up and empty for more than 20 years.

"This is a big milestone for us to get this [financing] finalized and for HUD to know that that part was in place, and so now we can finish up the rest of the pieces," said Marva Ellard, principal of Sieber Holdings LLC.

Total cost of the project is $8.01 million and will be funded through a combination of federal and state historic tax credits, private debt insured by HUD Section 220 loan guarantee and Murrah Economic Development loan program funds.

Ellard, former chairwoman of the Historic Preservation Commission, along with Robert Magrini and Todd Scott d/b/a Sieber Holdings LLC, has owned the property since 1998. In September 2005, the Sieber Grocery and Apartment Hotel was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Ellard said their plans are for the six-story, 48,000-square-foot former Sieber Hotel and the two-story, 10,000-square-foot former Sieber Grocery store to be converted into 38 rentable units.

The hotel building will contain 30 traditional-style apartments, ranging from 750 to 1,200 square feet, and the former grocery building will contain the remaining eight units, ranging from 840 to 1,440 square feet.

Ellard said the eight units in the smaller building will have a loft-style look to them with 14-foot ceilings, and the owners plan to keep the storefronts with Hudson Ave. openings.

The main hotel building, Ellard said, will contain approximately 5,000 square feet of commercial space on the first floor and she is hopeful a restaurant and retail establishment will decide to occupy some of that space.

"There was always a food establishment on the first floor, and at one time there was a cafeteria," Ellard said, adding there also once was the Sieber Coffee Shop. "We've talked to a few people and we'd definitely like a nice restaurant in there that would cater to the downtown/midtown health clientele in the neighborhood. That would be our goal, to put businesses in there that would be assets to the surrounding area."

If plans stay on schedule, renovations will begin in late February.

"HUD won't let you start until you close everything," Ellard said. "That's why this was so important. We're hoping to close in February but we still have some work to do."

[BDP]

Here's the pic from the OKC business article:



Edit: wow, the OKC business pic was way too big, so I resized it.

[metro]

Thanks BDP for posting the pic, I couldn't get it resized and compressed enough to post it

[Pete]

That's such a great-looking building in a very good location.

It will be wonderful to have lots more life in Midtown.

[jbrown84]

There are so many neat buildings like that just waiting to be restored into housing. I drove through that area the other day and if I remember right I noticed some work being done.

There is another cool building like this near the PHF Research Park and the Beacon of Hope, just to the east of 235.

[citizenkane]

That really is a cool building. I wish they would have converteed The Guest House Inn into apartments before tearing it down.

[OKCMann]

Anybody have an update concerning the Sieber? Are they working on the building?

[Pete]

Developers ready renovation of Sieber Hotel after purchase

By Steve Lackmeyer
The Oklahoman

The Sieber Hotel, a longtime MidTown eyesore, is undergoing a long-awaited renovation that developers promise will return it to its heyday as a gathering spot for nearby St. Anthony Hospital and Heritage Hills.



Sieber Holdings, led by local preservationist Marva Ellard, recently began an $8.5 million renovation that has been on the drawing board since her group first bought the boarded up, six-story hotel at a sheriff’s auction in 1997.

“It’s been our baby for a long time,” Ellard said. “I can understand anyone who might have gotten impatient. I’ve been working on this hard since 1998, and everything just finally came into place.”

Ellard said she and partners Robert Magrini, Todd Scott, Mike McDonald and Tom Stapleton encountered numerous challenges, including qualifying for Murrah revitalization loans, historic tax credits and HUD financing.

With everything lined up, crews started removing debris last month. Ellard said a new timetable calls for the hotel to reopen as a 38-unit apartment complex with first-floor restaurant, shop and office space by late 2007.

The site is one block south of the historic upscale Heritage Hills neighborhood, and a short walk to St. Anthony Hospital and downtown’s Arts District and Central Business District.

“From the top couple of floors, you can see the Capitol, the health sciences center, downtown, Heritage Hills - it’s a really nice view,” Ellard said. “The type of tenants we’ll be appealing to will be complementary to Heritage Hills. We’ll probably see medical residents from St. Anthony, business people and probably an older resident similar to the retirees and empty nesters at the Aberdeen (downtown’s oldest apartment tower).”

Ellard said the building’s best features haven’t been seen for years by the public. A tile mosaic floor and curved ceiling with skylights create a lobby that she thinks is unmatched anywhere in the city.

The Sieber is a dream project for Ellard, but she admits MidTown is a better bet for the project than it was eight years ago. Back then, MidTown was littered with abandoned, boarded-up buildings, including the large former Mercy Hospital at NW 12 and Dewey, the old Wesley Hospital at NW 12 and Harvey, and a 10-story former hotel at NW 10 and Walker.

Now only the old Wesley Hospital remains, and it is being renovated into lofts. Urban Renewal Authority razed the Mercy Hospital building and is seeking bids to redevelop the site into housing, and the old hotel was demolished by St. Anthony and is now part of the hospital campus.

Dozens of other properties are being renovated by developer Greg Banta.

Ellard never doubted MidTown was due for a rebound.

“It’s a block away from Heritage Hills,” Ellard said. “And there was a trend in other cities toward downtown housing. Oklahoma City usually lags behind those trends, but we come around eventually.”

Sieber descendants, meanwhile, await a personal tour of the hotel that was both a family business and home.

German immigrant Robert G. Sieber built the adjoining two-story building first in 1922, operating it as a butcher shop and grocery. He and his wife, Nora, then built and operated the six-story, u-shaped Sieber Apartment Hotel starting in 1928.

Their granddaughter, Joanie Elder, still cherishes memories of summer visits at the hotel. One aunt ran a beauty shop in the hotel’s north wing while her grandparents operated a coffee shop on the south wing. An underground tunnel between the butcher shop and the hotel was used to deliver meats to the restaurant.

Elder’s mother, DeLois, and her twin sister, Delrose, kept the hotel’s books, and helped in the shop. “It was a family business,” Elder said.

After Robert Sieber’s death in 1962, the sisters tried to continue operating the hotel through the early 1970s - but the area was quickly declining.

“There were a lot of vagrants in the area because a lot of the other places nearby had closed,” Elder said. “And the sisters were nearing retirement age, and nobody was left to take over the business.”

The first owners went bankrupt. Other owners attempted renovations throughout the 1980s, only to suffer the same fate. The building had been gutted, vandalized, and damaged by at least two fires when Ellard beat 30 other bidders at the sheriff’s auction.

Ellard has worked closely with the family, sharing development plans, compiling their history for a successful nomination of the hotel to the National Register of Historic Places. She has the family’s blessing to keep their name on the building, and some of their memorabilia will be on display when the renovation is completed.

“Marva has been wonderful,” Elder said. “Her enthusiasm is contagious .. We always knew this area would someday turn around.”

[trison]

Midtowner....I here there are plans to convert the Marion into 6 condos and that work is suppose to start by the end of the year.

[OKCMann]

Thanks for the update Malibu! I wondered what was going on with this. This too will be a great project for Midtown.

[metro]

anyone catch the article in the JR on Friday? I'm surprised no one has posted it yet. They will be apartments for the first 5 years (part of the financing requirements) then they have the option to put them up for sale. Remodeling is already under way. There will be 30 apartments in the main building and 8 in the attached 2 story building. There will also be a restaurant/ coffee shop and retail in the main building. If someone has online access to the JR please post the article.

[Midtowner]

Midtowner....I here there are plans to convert the Marion into 6 condos and that work is suppose to start by the end of the year.

Trison, do you have an approximate $/sq. ft. yet? Estimates on the size of your condos?

The wife and I are very interested in something like that in the not-too-distant future.

[metro]

To my knowledge some work has already began on the Marion.

[Midtowner]

Driving by the Sieber several times each day, I can see the work being done.

I can't say the same for the Marion, although I don't go that way as often.

I'd be interested in a condo at either property though.

[jbrown84]

They are definitely doing a lot of work on the Marion. I was in a car accident at that intersection and had to stand around for almost an hour. There was a lot going on.

[Midtowner]

The building looks like it's in pretty bad shape -- but so was the Clarion. I don't know the first thing about these sorts of projects, but to me, it looks like they are reinforcing the structure with steel support beams from the inside. These buildings should be very nice when they're finished.

I also think it's great the way Banta is doing this -- they bought a lot of projects which need similar work done. I'll bet they get a lot better deals on the bids considering the volume of the work -- also, those completing the projects are apt to become very efficient.