Downtown Tulsa tower to become Hyatt hotel
TULSA — A Boston Avenue tower is preparing for a new look.
Plans call for a Hyatt Place Hotel in the 13-story building at 400 S Boston Ave., according to building permits filed this month. The hotel is scheduled to have 103 units, documents show.
Backing the project is River City Development, whose managing member is Jim Hawkins. Reached by phone Wednesday, Hawkins declined to comment.
River City has been a leader in downtown development.
Earlier this year and just down the street from the 400 South Boston building, it opened The Meridia, a nine-story, 93-unit apartment complex with firstfloor retail. That project revived the former Enterprise Building, which had sat virtually unoccupied for more than two decades.
River City also redeveloped the upper floors of the Philtower into lofts in the mid2000s in what was among the first major revitalization projects downtown.
Once started, the Hyatt Place Hotel will mark the fifth hotel under construction downtown.
The 400 South Boston Building opened in 1967 as headquarters of the Home Federal Savings & Loan Association, which later became Sooner Federal Savings & Loan, according to Tulsa World archives.
The “curtain walls” of the building were made of a then-new reflective glass developed by Pittsburgh Plate Glass and designed to save the builders “22 tons of air conditioning” that would have been required had regular glass been used, according to the building’s 1967 grand opening brochure. The top floor features
a board room/event center, with a brick and copper fireplace, pegged oak floors and 18-foot walnut wall panels, according to the River City Development website.