Former Mayo Hotel

[cannon_fodder]

macke, thank you very much.  From everything I have heard it will be a top notch program and a wonderful addition to a growing list of downtown projects. Pardon my angst, but the project has been oversold before so, no pressure!  []

I don't need a hard date, but when will occupancy on the lofts and/or hotel start and what is the estimated time frame on the ballroom?  Just looking for a fall/2009 or whatever.

[macke]

Actually they will be leased for 5 yrs and after 5 yrs. sold as condos.  If you did not go on the upper floors then of course there were no GREAT view.  Go on the lower floors of most building and there are worse views.   I have seen the lofts and they looked pure quality.  I mean wow they are already spending $52 mil.  You go restore an old building and find the funding to do so.  Better that something is being done to The Mayo Hotel than just left empty forever.

[macke]

The entire project is set to be finished October 2009 this includes the Crystal Ballroom.

[RecycleMichael]

I had my high school Senior Prom in the Crystal Ballroom at the Mayo Hotel.

[bacjz00]

quote:Originally posted by macke

The entire project is set to be finished October 2009 this includes the Crystal Ballroom.

Wow I need to adjust my monitor...I swear I just read that the Mayo Hotel will be re-opened in 18 months with 100 rooms available.  Is this even possible??  If it happens...great...but I remain skeptical.

[pfox]

Curious as to why the hotel will not be operated by a flag, (not suggesting that is necessarily a bad thing, just not what I had originally heard).  There are lots of independent, successful hoteliers out there.

[sgrizzle]

quote:Originally posted by bacjz00

quote:Originally posted by macke

The entire project is set to be finished October 2009 this includes the Crystal Ballroom.

Wow I need to adjust my monitor...I swear I just read that the Mayo Hotel will be re-opened in 18 months with 100 rooms available.  Is this even possible??  If it happens...great...but I remain skeptical.

That's the same time period the Atlas hotel gave.

[perspicuity85]

Building permits issued:

"Mayo Hotel , 115 W. Fifth St., interior alterations, $9.5 million; apartments, $6 million; ballroom, $2.5 million; roof and exterior wall repair, $250,000."

http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectID=32&articleID=20080511_46_E2_hComme343616

[dsjeffries]

[swake]

KOTV reports construction has started

http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=8338024&nav=menu682_2

[TulsaPride]

The progress on the Mayo is going surprisingly fast. I work in the ONEOK building and have a direct view into the Mayo. It appears as though many interior walls are being constructed. Also, I heard from the owner that construction would be complete by Nov 2009!

[TheArtist]

Thats always one of the tricky things about construction. Getting it going, can take forever, "gosh will it ever get started or done?" then the basic structure and walls seem to appear over night, "wow this will be done in no time". Then things bog back down with the finish work especially when the old fall behind domino effect starts..."well this guy fell behind on his schedule so you can start on the tile, trim, paint, fixtures or whatever it is, on this date.... What? your next available time is When!?" or "dang this trim and little finish stuff is costing more than the walls!? Umm, hello... mr artist, due to unforseen budgeting problems we are gonna have to kind of put a hold on the artwork" []

[TheTed]

Video:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/default.aspx

[circassia]

Wow I love this project. I'm seriously looking into renting one of these when they get them up and running. I love the windows, lots of windows and great views. []

[sgrizzle]

Update on the project:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/article.aspx?subjectid=261&articleid=20090208_261_G1_Aviewf35877&allcom=1
(article has progress images)

quote:
Mayo reborn

by: WAYNE GREENE Editorial Writer
Sunday, February 08, 2009
2/8/2009 2:44:13 AM

On a clear day you can see all the way to Oral Roberts University.

The perspective from the top of the Mayo Hotel is truly remarkable.

You also can see all the way to a new downtown, but that takes more than just altitude.

Vision: In 2001, a development company controlled by the Charles Snyder family bought the Mayo Hotel for $250,000.

The family had bought perhaps the most historic building in Tulsa — one of the places oilman J. Paul Getty lived when he called Tulsa home, the place John Kennedy, Charles Lindbergh, and Babe Ruth stayed when they visited the city, the place where Richard Nixon once spoke — for $9,000 less than the asking price for a four-bedroom Midtown home in the next Sunday's Tulsa World real estate supplement.

In a sense, it was the low-water mark for Tulsa's downtown. A series of failed efforts to restore the hotel had left it a beautiful eyesore, its grandeur stripped away within and its exterior beginning to crumble.

The Snyder family's expectations for the dusty old landmark weren't very high.

"We basically purchased a parking lot and a hotel came with it," said Macy Snyder, sales manager for the Mayo.

It's not just a parking lot any more. It's the most exciting private project in downtown Tulsa's continuing renaissance.

The change came when the people of Tulsa passed the Vision 2025 package in 2003 and subsequently built the BOK Center a few blocks away from the Mayo, Snyder said.

At that point, the family started to think of the hotel as a true development potential.

A project to convert the hulk that once had been the city's palace hotel got a $4.9 million no-interest loan from the Vision 2025 package, a private loan for another $40 million and historic preservation tax credits that turned the property from a parking lot with a hotel to a vision of the future and the past.

Elegance restored: Go anywhere inside the Mayo today and there's activity. From the architect's office on the second floor to the penthouse, all 17 floors are buzzing with construction workers. Drywall is going up here. Molding over there. This man is painting. That one is working on the exterior brick.

They're on a pretty tight schedule. There's a bride expecting to hold her wedding inside the hotel on Oct. 3, and that's precious little time when you have 285,000 square feet to finish.

On March 1, the hotel expects to start taking deposits for tenants wanting to get onto the waiting list for one of 76 apartments on floors 2, 4, 10-15 and 17. Leases will be signed in June, and in August residents will start moving in.

There's covered parking for apartment residents under the building and for hotel and event guests in the Mayo Motor Inn next door.

Apartments will range from 700 to 2,220 square feet and residents will have the services of a luxury hotel — room service, laundry, maid service, a gym, valet parking — available to them.

A small grocery store and a museum to the hotel's history also are in the works.

In August, the building's hotel operation will start offering its 100 rooms. A grand opening event for the building is planned for late October or early November.

Despite the tight schedule, the restoration is being done meticulously.

The apartments won't be cheap work with a famous address. From the wood floors of the smallest apartment to the original four chandeliers to be restored to the Crystal Ballroom, everything is being done with attention to detail, elegance and history.

The highlight will be the 16th floor ballroom, one of the central settings from Tulsa's glorious past.

The room that has held decades of the swankest events in Tulsa history will be returned to its former glory. The ghosts of Getty and Skelly will watch as a new generation of Tulsans — up to 350 at a time with 80 more in adjoining space — dance and dine.

"This is the one space that will be exactly the way it was when it was built," Snyder said.

Believe: In the past four years, Snyder said she's seen a remarkable change in downtown Tulsa, and the reason is obvious.

"The BOK Center is doing very well," she said. "The city and the surrounding area are supporting it."

There are more restaurants, the atmosphere is safe, and there are more people on the streets.

She goes to night events at the BOK Center and doesn't hesitate to walk to and from her car at the hotel.

"I wouldn't have felt that way a year ago."

The next leap forward for downtown will be the Mayo's reopening — following a series of attempts that had left some in doubt that the building would ever reopen.

"This being restored is so crucial to the restoration of downtown," Snyder said. "It takes people actually seeing it happen.

"I have people ask me all the time, 'Is the Mayo actually happening?'" she said.

It is.