OKC’s former downtown Holiday Inn will be converted into boutique apartments
The Oklahoma City Council on Tuesday approved $2.9 million in tax increment financing to convert the former Holiday Inn downtown into 204 micro-apartments with monthly rents averaging $875.
Infinity Investments, based in Roswell, Georgia, and founded by Kevin Harris and Brendon Brown, already has seven apartment homes in Oklahoma, including Countryside Village in Oklahoma City.
The converted hotel, which will be renamed The Pulse Apartments, will consist of 204 units, 184 of which will be 316 square feet. The space will be “really affordable,” Harris said.
“These are typical hotel rooms,” Harris said. “You have a bathroom and a model room where we will put a little kitchen. Everything will be new and nice. But you won’t host 25 of your relatives here. We have the basement for that. There will be plenty of places for people to sit and eat and talk to their friends.”
What amenities will be offered when converting the old Holiday Inn into apartments?
The ground floor lobby and ballrooms are slated to be transformed into a mix of amenities including a pickleball court, pool tables, fitness center, laundry room, clubhouse, kennel, office center, media room, storage cages, bike storage and conference center. On the ground floor. The surface parking lot south of the building will be converted into a dog park, pool, clubhouse and courtyard.
“This will be a real community for live action play,” Harris said. “Since it was an older hotel with a large common area downstairs, we will be able to offer a lot of amenities that no one can match downtown.”
Harris said he also hopes to include a restaurant and bar as part of the mix. The developers are working with the Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority to secure 200 parking spaces for residents in the adjacent Sheridan Walker Garage.
How much will it cost?
The tax increment financing allocation will consist of $1.5 million from the Downtown District TIF upon completion of the development. Another $400,000 will be paid over the remaining two years before the TIF district expires in 2026.
The developers previously secured a $4.6 million low-interest loan through Oklahoma County’s Commercial Property Appraisal for Clean Energy, or C-PACE, program, which provides developers with low-cost, long-term financing for energy efficiency, renewables, water conservation and construction. Flexibility projects.
more: Supporters say C-PACE funding enhances the projects’ sustainability
Brown said the company is undertaking two similar conversions of two other older hotels in Orlando, Florida. He estimated construction in Oklahoma City would take one year with another eight to 12 months to lease the apartments.
The Holiday Inn opened in 1965. At the time of its opening, it had a mid-century “Mad Men” atmosphere that included a swimming pool and on-site surface parking for 105 cars. It was the first new hotel built downtown in three decades.
However, the Holiday Inn did not quite fit into the new downtown that followed. In the early 1980s, the owners of the Skirvin invested $3 million in rehabilitating the Holiday Inn, but when the oil crash happened, both hotels were folded. The hotel was purchased by Kimray in 1993 and then given to the Character First Institute.
The building has remained vacant since the institute closed in 2016, but it is within walking distance of restaurants, bars and shops along nearby Film Row and within walking distance of the Civic Center Music Hall, the downtown business district, Myriad Gardens and Scissortail Park. BICOM Centre.
“We love the location for any young professional,” Harris said. “Leasing our space would be a great opportunity. When I was young and single and starting my career as an architect, I wanted to stay in a place that had the amenities that we would offer with the location of this space.
