Developer gives Tulsa’s dreary Hartford Building curb appeal
TULSA — For decades, Neal Bhow made his living in wholesale diamonds.
Nowadays, what he finds precious is development.
He and partners in recent years have converted the former city hall into Aloft Tulsa Downtown and another building (707 S. Houston Ave.) into a Best Western Plus, operated by his son, Shaun.
Neal Bhow’s current project is on the east side of downtown, where he is putting the polish on the Hartford Building, which has been unoccupied since city of Tulsa moved offices from there in 2008.
“Our goals were to give it a curb appeal and to bring the light in,” he said of the roughly $7 million project at 110 S. Hartford Ave.
Bhow is transforming the 74,000-square-foot building into open office space, having enlarged the square footage of the windows in front (2,275 square feet) by nearly 300 percent.
“Before, the building was telling you to stay away from it,” he said. “It looked like a jail, honestly. Now, it is appealing and enlightening. It looks like an office building should.”
The first two floors are 35,000 square feet each, and the small third floor has partitioned offices and 9-foot-tall wooden doors. The structure also features more than 200 parking spaces and automation that controls heat and air, lighting and access, Bhow said.
“For all practical purposes, this is all new inside,” he said.
Phase two of the project could include a five-story, mixed-use building with 55 residential units at the corner. That, along with proposals from two other development groups, was pitched March 1 to the Tulsa Development Authority, which will extend a $1 million, lowinterest loan to one of the proposals.
In the meantime, Bhow said he expects to have a certificate of occupancy for his current project within a couple of months. He said the freeflowing space could be appealing to a tech company or firms that specialize in engineering or architecture.
“We knew the bones of the building were good,” Bhow said. “It just needed a lot of care . ... I feel very confident that we have come to a point where it shows well.”