$80M downtown residential development: ‘A true labor of love’

Price Family Properties is refurbishing the majority of a block in the heart of downtown between Fifth and Sixth streets and Boston and Cincinnati avenues.

The massive project involves the Arco (119 E. Sixth St.), Philcade (501 S. Boston Ave.) and IBM (521 S. Boston Ave.) buildings.

“We’re taking these beautiful … buildings and … just breathing new life into them, reigniting their beauty and charm, and letting people enjoy them for another 100 years,” said Jackie Price Johannsen, president of Price Family Properties.

“We’re very passionate about what we do, and we’re very committed to Tulsa and to these buildings,” she said.

The project involves nearly 500 new apartments and more than 500,000 square feet.

Johannsen recently led the Tulsa World on a tour of the development — the first phase of which is the Arco Building, a 133,000-square-foot, six-story structure built in 1949.

The building has marble interior walls of varying colors on each floor because the marble came from different places — Italy and Missouri, among others, she said.

“We call this like our Ritz-Carlton because it is so incredible,” she said.

In addition, the basement of the Arco Building is being converted from an area filled with outdated heating and electrical equipment into a 60-space parking garage for residents.

The basement conversion itself was a massive undertaking, Johannsen said, because gigantic, multi-ton sections of concrete had to be removed at the base wall of the basement and a new concrete ramp built from street level for vehicles to enter and exit from under the building.

“There are huge undertakings, right? You think, ‘Oh, the building’s there; great.’ But you have to get creative, because it was built for offices, and we’re trying to figure out how to put apartments in here.

“It’s expensive, and you have to be creative … to meet the current code. It’s definitely an undertaking, but I think it’s what downtown needs right now,” she said.

Monthly rent in the Arco Building will range from $800 for a studio apartment to $7,000 for a four-bedroom, four-bath 3,500-square-foot luxury space, which also includes a walk-in pantry and a laundry room. There are two of those big-house-size apartments, she said, one of which has a private balcony.

She said demand for the new apartments is such that there is practically a waiting list.

“We put them on the market … when we are ready to lease them, and they are 100% occupied, just like that,” Johannsen said.

“The diversity (of those seeking downtown apartments) is kind of amazing. We’ve had recent college graduates … up to retirees who want to be able to lock their door and leave for a week or two and travel or go visit grandkids. The safety and the efficiency of being able to be in an apartment — people are finding very attractive.”

Work on the Arco Building began about a year ago and is expected to be completed in about four months, she said.

Next up will be the Philcade (about 248,000 square feet, completed in 1931) and the IBM Building (about 177,000 square feet, built in 1965).

The 14-story Philcade was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. It is home to retail shops and other businesses on its ground floor, which will not be affected by the apartment revitalization on the upper floors, Johannsen said.

Once permits have been issued, it will take about 12 months to convert those two buildings, depending on supply chains and labor costs, she said.

“You have to update everything — the electrical, the plumbing, because there wasn’t a bathroom or a sink in everyone’s office. The only thing that stays are the walls and the columns and anything that has historic significance. Other than that, you’re gutting and building out an apartment.

“Just the undertaking of restoring the historic piece(s) — it’s a true labor of love.”

Johannsen mentioned Mayor G.T. Bynum’s commitment to Tulsa’s housing needs.

“The mayor made a comment … that his No. 1 priority is housing, so we’re doing everything we can to help build and create the housing that downtown Tulsa needs,” she said.

“We’ve, over the last seven years, … it was our vision to take old buildings that weren’t fully being utilized as commercial space and take them offline, to slowly be able to convert them into apartments.

“So we don’t have like other cities are having — you hear the commercial crisis … office space and whatnot. We’re not having that issue here because of, we believe, the strategy of taking them offline, turning them into apartments, and it’s been effective every time,” Johannsen said.

“We see the need and the urgency for housing, and the vibrancy that it brings to downtown is so important.

“I know you read stories across the country, but we’ve been able to, in such a way, take off enough square footage from office space and turn it into apartments that we’re not having that glut of just empty office space.

“You could put Arco or Philcade or even this (IBM) building in downtown New York in the financial district. You could be walking in there, and they are so beautiful and timeless it’s kind of incredible that Tulsa has so many of these (buildings).”

Brian Kurtz is president and CEO of Downtown Tulsa Partnership.

“At the end of the day we need more people living downtown, and this is certainly a way to achieve that,” he said. “It’s certainly a tremendous investment for our downtown and our community.

“Demand exists to double downtown’s population over the next 10 years, and it’s investments like this is how we build a true residential neighborhood downtown,” Kurtz said.

“I am so grateful for the transformative investments Price Family Properties has made in downtown Tulsa,” Bynum said in a statement to the Tulsa World.

“They have revitalized some of Tulsa’s most iconic buildings through creativity and commitment. They have saved some of Tulsa’s most important architecture and made it more accessible to future generations of Tulsans.”

Asked what other projects Price Family Properties has in the works, Johannsen said:

“This is our big project right now. I think we (will) have a lot of other really fun announcements that we can make in the downtown area outside of the residential development piece.”