Nov. 5, 2002--Developers seeking to save the Skirvin Hotel will get to tell Oklahoma City officials how they think they can best reopen the historic downtown building. 

Monday marked the first meeting of the Skirvin Property Review Board, a group consisting of Mayor Kirk Humphreys; city council members Willa Johnson, Larry McAtee and Amy Brooks; Assistant City Manager JoeVan Bullard; Oklahoma Historical Society Director Bob Blackburn; the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority; and city planning officials. 
 

The Skirvin Hotel was also built in 1910 by oilman W.B. Skirvin, and was one of the first buildings in town to have air conditioning, called "iced air" in hotel publicity. Skirvin�s daughter, Perl Mesta, brought the hotel a national reputation by being the ambassadress to Luxembourg, and then Washington�s "Hostess with the Mostess," portrayed in the famed Broadway musical, "Call Me Madam." The Skirvin  has stood empty since 1989, a victim of the oil crash of the 1980s.

The panel unanimously approved a request for proposals to be distributed nationwide to developers with experience renovating old hotels. 

"We're asking the development community how to do this, as opposed to us telling the development community how to do it," said John Michael Williams, an attorney for Urban Renewal. 

"We're looking for that somebody out there who has done this before, who has experience, expertise and the financial wherewithal to come back in and be our partner to find the best way to make the best use of the Skirvin." 

The Oklahoma City Council bought the Skirvin in July from its previous owners, Michael Dillard and Roddy Bates, for $2.87 million. The purchase was funded through federal Community Development Block Grants. 

The hotel, built in 1910, has passed through a series of owners without redevelopment since it closed in 1988. The hotel is considered by preservationists and historians to be one of the city's most historic sites. 

Williams, who wrote the development request, told the panel any developer will have to follow guidelines associated with the hotel's placement on the National Register of Historic Places. The panel also wants a developer who can take advantage of the city's recent designation as an empowerment zone by the federal Housing and Urban Development Department. 

Under federal guidelines, tax-exempt bond funding cannot be used for business or private industry. But those rules can be waived for projects within the empowerment zone. 

Bullard has estimated the effect of the bond financing alone can cut interest costs from 9 percent to 5.25 percent, effectively increasing the amount of debt the Skirvin restoration can support from $13.5 million to $19 million. 

Bullard said Monday his office has received 42 inquiries about the hotel, with about 10 parties being "really strong." 

The request for proposals is up for a vote by Urban Renewal commissioners next week, and if it wins their approval should be distributed this month. Development bids would be due March 31. 

Humphreys said he will want to see developers be required to put some money "up front" when chosen for the project. 

"As we negotiate this, as part of that we should require them to put some money up front so that they don't string us out forever and ever," Humphreys said. "If this were a typical development deal, that's what would happen. A bank would say, put your money in before we approve this loan." 

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(c) 2002, The Daily Oklahoman. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.