Purchased 7 years ago for $5.5 million, sold now for $21 million! Can you believe that price increase?!?! Crazy! DT OKC real estate values have truly skyrocketed. Not only did the mysterious California investors buy the tower but also the 14 story buildings attached. It sounds like they're going to refurbish all of the offices but also we can't rule out some residential uses. Either way it will take a lot more vacant space away- either by signing new tenants or converting away to residential. Great news!
The beautiful 32 story tower with its grand banking hall and two 14 story buildings are included in the sale.
It's almost a million square feet of office space! (999,651 sf)
First National Center bought for $21m
By Richard Mize
The Oklahoman
California investors bought First National Center Friday in a $21 million deal that could change the tenor of an already dynamic downtown Oklahoma City.
The buyers, who were not revealed, have no connection to Oklahoma, said Tim Strange of Sperry Van Ness, which handled the sale of the city’s largest downtown office property.
"Plans are to bring it back to its former glory as the crown jewel of downtown Oklahoma City.
To fill it up — and dress her up and take her to the ball. Have a centennial ball in the Grand Banking Hall," Strange said. "This deal really came together, from inception to closing, in 48 hours," he said.
Sperry Van Ness’s Jason Little, who represented the buyers, said he could not provide specifics on the new owners’ plans for the office buildings.
"They’re pretty creative and they’re not ruling anything out," Little said.
First National Center comprises the original 32-story tower of 451,086 square feet built in 1931 at 120 N Robinson, a 14-story building of 201,915 square feet built in 1956 at 120 Park Ave. and a 14-story building of 346,650 square feet built in 1974, also at 120 Park Ave.
The purchase puts the distinctive yet largely empty property in new hands for the first time since 1999, when developers Joel S. Hoffman and Mitchell Wolff of Parsippany, N.J., formed First National LLC and
bought it from the nonprofit Feed the Children for $5.5 million.