Building with Broad Shoulders

Jeff Hartman is the first to admit he may not have known what he was getting into when he and his two partners in SJS Hospitality, a Broken Arrow-based developer, set about trying to purchase the historic Atlas Life Building in downtown Tulsa in 2008.

It was a process that took a year and a half to complete, finally reaching fruition in 2009 when SJS and seller Kanbar Properties settled on a price of $1.7 million. Then the hard part started, he said. For a developer who was used to, in his own words, put up a "cookie-cutter building on a box of land," the challenges of converting an 87-year-old downtown building into a full-service hotel were considerable. But Hartman was ready to do something different--or so he thought.

"I had to remind myself of that quite often," he said, as the negotiations dragged on.

Hartman celebrated a major milestone for the project on March 24, when Mayor Kathy Taylor joined him at the building, 415 S. Boston Ave., for a groundbreaking that signals the start of its $17.2 million renovation. When the building opens in the summer of 2010, it will do so as a Courtyard by Marriott location, bringing 118 much-needed new rooms to downtown.

A dearth of such downtown hotel accommodations is considered a major obstacle in Tulsa's efforts to attract convention business, even with the planned opening of the renovated Tulsa Convention Center in January 2010. Downtown boosters have been anticipating the start of the Atlas Life project for many months, hoping it will strengthen the city's attractiveness to convention planners.

"That's what we're hoping for," Hartman said on March 26 at his firm's headquarters in Broken Arrow. "With the addition of the BOK arena, not much is being made of the Tulsa Convention Center. But that's a key part of the hospitality industry. The Tulsa Convention Center is more of a demand driver for hotels. With that renovation, that should be a great addition to creating more demand downtown."

Hartman said construction of the BOK Center represents a nice addition for downtown, but that had little to do with the decision by him and his partners to renovate the Atlas Life Building.

"Our main reason for doing this is not because of the BOK arena," he said. "Our main intention is to serve the business community."

Hartman said the hotel--tentatively named the Courtyard by Marriott-Atlas Life, though a final decision won't be made before fall--will focus on serving the corporate sector on weekdays and hopes to target an entertainment market on weekends.

Oh Heavens

At first blush, the Atlas Life project does not seem to fit the Courtyard by Marriott profile to which many travelers have become accustomed. Courtyard locations tend to be freestanding, newly constructed buildings surrounded by a green belt with plenty of free parking. Hartman acknowledged that fact, but said the brand is moving into a segment of a new market called adaptive reuse, in which more and more Courtyard locations are being opened in renovated buildings in downtown locations where space is limited. Ten such properties have opened around the country with others in the works, he said.

Hartman also said the (building) hotel is expected to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places by this summer, as the National Park Service already has given the go-ahead to the preliminary redesign submitted by the Tulsa-based architectural firm Gh2.

"We're going to have the amenities and features you would get in any new Courtyard by Marriott, and we'll adhere to all their standards," he said.

That's not to say there won't be challenges. Hartman said the typical problems of an older building--asbestos abatement, lead paint removal--will have to be dealt with, even as the building remains open to visitors to the Tulsa Press Club and Atlas Grill on the first floor. Much of the louder, messier demolition work is being done at night and on weekends to keep disturbances to a minimum, Hartman said.

The building's seventh floor has significant historic features that will remain intact. That floor will be home to the Atlas Suite, a three-bedroom suite overlooking Boston Avenue. It also will have a board room and a security feature on the elevator that requires a special key for access so that the floor can be leased to groups requiring a longer stay, such as traveling theater companies doing an extended run at the Performing Arts Center.

Hartman said even the original doors on the seventh floor will be retained, though that will require some imaginative thinking on the part of designers to have them meet Marriott's guest safety standards for key card entry.

The hotel lobby will be located on the second floor--a feature unique to Tulsa and much of the Midwest, Hartman said--and will reflect Marriott's Redefinition package, which will showcase a contemporary, modern design with bright colors. An onsite restaurant and bar named the Bistro Bar will be included, and the lobby will feature a 52-inch LCD flat-screen, touch monitor called a "go board" that will allow guests to view weather, dining and flight information, as well as print airline boarding passes.

Joining the Tulsa Press Club and the Atlas Grill, both of which also will be renovated, on the first floor will be a new satellite office of the Tulsa Historical Society featuring a display on the history of the Atlas Life Building.

One thing the property won't have is its own parking, though Hartman said the hotel will have paid valet parking through an arrangement with a nearby garage.

And what about the building's iconic Atlas Life sign, long a reminder of downtown Tulsa's former glory?

"It stays. We not only want to keep it for name-recognition reasons but for the emotional attachment people have to it," Hartman said, adding that the building's historic status dictates that the sign remain, as well.