Sale contract confirmed for Spaghetti Warehouse
An Oklahoma City commercial developer has a contract to buy the former Spaghetti Warehouse in Bricktown and has plans to convert it into either a hotel or offices.
Don Hayes, broker for Sam Coury, confirmed Thursday Coury’s Cedars Group LLC has a contract to buy the former restaurant at 101 E Sheridan. The six-story, century-old building spans 82,000 square feet and was originally home to Oklahoma Furniture Manufacturing Co.
The building was bought and converted into a Spaghetti Warehouse in 1988, but the upper five stories were sealed for the past half century. The eatery closed in early 2016.
Hayes said engineers were hired to examine the building and determined structurally it is in good shape despite buckling wood floors and unsecured openings that were only recently boarded up.
“It’s been taken care of,” Hayes said in response to concerns by the Urban Renewal Authority that the property is falling into disrepair.
Hayes worked with city inspectors earlier this week to secure open windows on the upper floors and only one, without a frame, remains open.
The building is owned by VEREIT, a Phoenix real estate investment trust. The sale is expected to close in August. A sale price is not being disclosed by VEREIT or Hayes, but other developers who sought the buyer were given a listing of $3.8 million.
Hayes said Coury is unlikely to look at housing for the upper floors, and commercial tenants will be sought for the ground floor.
“It’s an iconic building,” Hayes said. “It’s where Bricktown got its start. Everyone went there at some point. And we want to give it a great new beginning.”
Hayes said his priority is to get the building off the city’s abandoned building list.
Authority carries on
The Urban Renewal Authority, however, may continue to look at adding the building to an existing redevelopment plan in Bricktown that could include declaring the structure blighted and eligible for eminent domain if necessary.
Urban Renewal commissioners on Wednesday unanimously approved starting the process of adding it to a previously created plan that oversaw acquisitions and development for what is now Lower Bricktown.
“The plan will proceed until the city council tells us to stop,” said Cathy O’Connor, director of the Urban Renewal Authority. “We’re going to go on with the process because we don’t know of any final plans for the building.”
O’Connor cautioned redevelopment of the warehouse won’t be easy or cheap. Redevelopment will require approval by the Bricktown Urban Design Committee.
“We would like to see a historic restoration of the building that leverages as many tools as possible — tools like federal and state historic tax credits — to help make development more feasible,” O’Connor said.
“If the private developer comes to the city with a proposal to use tax increment financing to help offset some of the costs of rehabilitation, their use of those kinds of incentives will be an important consideration along with detailed plans on how they plan to renovate the building,” she said.