Another Century Old Building Lost Forever?
I’ve been meaning to write about this building, built in 1911 according to assessor’s records. It appeared to be vacant last time I drove by. We have a handful of these properties downtown – full of potential, but in the hands of owners who don’t seem to realize what they have, or have grandiose ideas on how much to demand from a buyer. Not sure if that was the case with this particular building … but it’s apparent loss is a shame.
Now, if the news report is correct, it’s going to be another empty lot. Wonderful, just wonderful. Lesson to others…. dirt sells for much less money.
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Wow, what a tragedy! That building was gorgeous. There are a few on Penn that are abandoned that I feel would be awesome to report on. Take a drive up Penn from Reno north and you will see them.
This is right across the street from St. Paul’s. For years it was a somewhat run-down boarding house-type place. A couple of years ago the residents all left, they repainted at least on the outside and it looked like they did work on the inside. It was apparently being renovated. It’s been empty ever since.
The news report is definitely correct. I dropped by today. The interior is completely destroyed, and the entire front interior part of the building collapsed. I guess it had been used for apartments at some point? Very sad.
Buildings are a lot like any constructed device. They have a life span and when they have outlived that life span it is time to renovate, if economically viable, or demolish. Happens with cars, airplanes and eventually with humans.
The heartbreaking thing about this is: Someone will probably bulldoze it and create a parking lot. Just what we need in downtown OKC. .
The previous owner that sold it in 2008 was from denver but kept the building occupied. Was sold then to a local LLC just up the block with a press release at the time saying they were going to redevelop it into offices over the next year……. 2011 now a casualty to fire ( wink wink) So dont say that outsiders (non OKC) are the ones holding on to these properties and doing nothing….To often the case can be made that the properties are being held by local LLC’s owned by OKC residents and just holding them (Recall all the properties that were owned in Midtown by a certain local Land Cattle company) In my opinion they had no intention of making any improvements but were just sitting on the property…
Kent, you’re exactly right … some of the worst culprits on this sort of thing are locals. Still waiting to find out the exact story on this property.
That’s a beautiful old building. It’s sad that it burned, but also a little fishy. Similar circumstances have happenned in Tulsa several times…
It has been a running “joke” for a long time around abandoned property owners to leave the property unsecured during the winter. The transienst move in and start a fire to keep warm. Presto burned downn building.
Similar to the older buildings between 29th and 30th on the west side of Classen. Interesting how things burn down when investors want them gone.
Thought I read that if a building is unoccupied (not rented/leased or if a residence, no one living in it, that if it burns, insurance won’t pay (just as they won’t pay if arson is proved)???
NOT trying to throw dispersions on this property’s owner or suggesting anything illegal happening.
I suppose it might be a possibility that having a building burn down might be cheaper for the owner to have the debris removed and see the now undeveloped lot for more (if a new owner wasn’t interested in the building and would be replacing it anyway). Then also, I suppose property taxes would be cheaper on a now vacant lot than one with a building on it. So who knows.
If a building burns down it is much easier to have it removed. Once it has burned it can be declared a hazard to the public. The property taxes on the building were running around $8,400 on a $650,000 investment and market value of $675,000 and land value of $31,500. So property taxes were roughly 1.25% on market value. Not all properties are burning down, many more are just being held with no repairs, and at some point the scale tips and they too are declared hazards to the public….. thus demolition by negelect.
Many of these buildings are owned by out of state folks that really have no idea that Oklahoma City is what it is. For them they are hoping for a loss. Too bad because their so called loss is really ours. Already we are hard to point out from the highway full of cities like ours.