How Can Downtown Oklahoma City Help Main Street Cherokee?
Oklahoman Real Estate Editor Richard Mize has a great column today about James Cotter, owner of downtown Oklahoma City’s Chase Tower. While Mr. Cotter has made some significant efforts to do some braggin at Chase Tower by emblazoning the floor with his brand, he’s taken no such pride with some Main Street properties in the northern Oklahoma town of Cherokee.
Richard has given a voice to these folks by writing about their unsuccessful efforts to get Cotter to sell or donate key downtown properties that obviously have no value to him as evidenced by their lack of upkeep.
But if Mr. Cotter doesn’t care about what the folks in Cherokee think about him, I wonder if he places more value on his reputation in a town where he owns the largest office tower – one that will be half empty in a few years when Devon moves into its own tower. One might think he might need some good will to fill up all that empty space in a 36-story building he claims is legally named Cotter Ranch Tower (I bet you didn’t know that).
After doing some research on Mr. Cotter, it appears as if “Cotter Ranch” Chase Tower is the gem of his portfolio. According to the San Antonio Express News, Cotter got into the real estate business after leaving the Army in the 1950s. He attended Walla Walla College in Walla Walla, Wash., and developed a 36-lot subdivision before graduating in the late 1950s.
Around that time, Cotter also owned the last privately owned bus line in Washington, which served Walla Walla and the surrounding area.
Now he owns about 70 buildings, including medical office buildings, retail centers and warehouses in Texas, Washington, Idaho, California, Oklahoma and Florida. He wants to get his three sons — all named James — started in the real estate business.
Now let’s talk about tiny Cherokee, population 1,437. Like many small Oklahoma towns, Cherokee is fighting the same battle faced by many towns its size. Between 2000 and 2007, its population dropped 10 percent. Yet the town, as evidenced in the above photo, is trying to keep its Main Street nice and doing what it can to rebound. A donation by Mr. Cotter of two buildings with little value to himself would be a big boost to this town.
What do you think? I wonder whether anyone in the big city, home to “Cotter Ranch Tower,” would contact Mr. Cotter if they knew they could contact his local representative, Chase Tower manager Tammy Powell, at (405) 601-6600 or by Email at tammypowell@cotterandsons.com. As for Cotter and his sons, I couldn’t find a web site or email address in San Antonio. But they are located at 802 NE Loop 410, San Antiono, Texas, 78217 and their phone number is (210) 822-2001.
Thank you for joining our conversation on OKC Central. We encourage your discussion but ask that you stay within the bounds of our commenting and posting policy.
Comments
Steve, you would make a good contestant on Survivor, you know how to start a fire. Keep it going my friend.
Thanks for all your help. Cherokee has been held hostage by Mr. Cotter for years. One building has the roofing caved and the local Rotary Club cleans up the broken glass and sweeps the frontage. It is such an example of poor stewardship and disregard for a community trying to keep up a clean main street.
I am a business owner in Cherokee and at one time tried to purchase one of these building and Mr. Cotter wouldn’t even respond to my offer. After a while he quit paying the property taxes on both buildings which I started the process of paying the taxes to get ownership in local hands but after 2 or 3 years he sent his representative in and paid the taxes but did nothing for the properties.
Thank you for your great story about the Kotter properties…or should I say blights on our city’s appearance. Let’s also look at these business properties as future growth potential….even survival…for our town. Preservation from a historical aspect is most important to this 100 year old city. Keep on this…we need folks like you to keep our pride and vision for the future out there.
Actually I did know the name Cotter Ranch Tower. Let’s not forget Mr. Cotter blocked the nice grand entrance to the Undergound from being built on his property, on the plaza/sidewalk directly across from the Skirvin. That would have been a nice showpiece.
As for the buildings in a state of disrepair in Cherokee, why couldn’t the city condemn them and drive Cotter out?
I really don’t understand why anyone would hang on to unused buildings in a small town… When you have multi-million dollar towers and retail shopping centers, why even bother? There isn’t any money being made… strange.
In reply to Jason, Mr. Cotter acquired the properties as part of a deal that included a nursing home and a motel. The other two properties he was able to sell. The two on Grand Avenue were apparantly too much trouble to deal with. They have been ignored.In reply to Brian, condemning and taking over property sounds easier than it is. Our municipal code doesn’t really address this issue. And of course, any legal action takes money. Cherokee is as broke as any other small rural town. Taking on Cotter legally is not something we can really afford to do.
Question to those of you who have written in from Cherokee: have you considered writing letters to the editor of the San Antonio Express News, Cotter’s hometown paper? Or have you thought about sending video and photos to San Antonio news stations? I wonder if letting his hometown know about your plight might make an impression?
Just to add a little more information to Mrs. Koontz’s message. The property in the 200 block of south Grand has been condemned but as she mentioned there is no funds to clean it up so nothing was done. I’ll see about posting some video or pictures.
Would love to hear a follow up on this, Steve. “Cotter Ranch Tower?!? For real, wow…speechless.