[MainstreetTowns] FW: Nice article re Kendall Whittier rehabs

[Melvena Heisch]

Main Street Friends:

Just sharing the following article that really shows the importance of Main Street programs and the SHPO's National Register and rehabilitation tax credits programs. We all make great partners.

Hope to see all of you at the preservation conference here in Oklahoma City, June 7-9. Numerous tax credit project case studies are on the agenda as are presentations about the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation and tax credits on Thursday afternoon provided by Antonio Aguilar, Historical Architect, National Park Service (reviews Oklahoma rehab tax credit projects) and Jennifer Bailey, Tax Credits Coordinator, State Historic Preservation Office. You might also think about attending the Wednesday afternoon, June 7 session about the National Register of Historic Places and the impacts of the rehab credits in Oklahoma provided by Lynda Ozan, National Register Coordinator, State Historic Preservation Office and Amanda DeCort, Executive Director, Tulsa Foundation for Architecture, respectively. One of the lunch tours will take you to three certified rehabilitation projects.

See you soon.

Melvena Heisch
Deputy SHPO
State Historic Preservation Office
Oklahoma Historical society
405/522-4484
mheisch at okhistory.org<mailto:mheisch at okhistory.org>



Three tenants filling refurbished historic building in Kendall Whittier District
Building gets makeover and three new occupants

Many looked at the two stories of unused space at 20 S. Lewis Ave. and saw only cobwebs.

Not Jim Stephens.

"We saw the potential to bring it back," he said.

Back it is.

Stephens, co-owner of Red Brick Capital Management with Teresa Knox, used a $2 million redevelopment to rejuvenate a 13,000-square-foot property in the Kendall Whittier District. The nonprofit Growing Together occupies the second floor, and HP Engineering and Orth Contemporary, an art gallery, are tenants on the ground floor.

Stephens said the building most recently served as storage space for the former Swinney Hardware, which TPC Studios converted into its new home earlier this year. Directly north of the Red Brick Capital property is Circle Cinema.

Since January 2013, a total of 31 new businesses have opened in the Kendall Whittier service area, representing 230 jobs and $17.5 million in private investment, said Ed Sharrer, executive director of Kendall Whittier Main Street, a nonprofit that supports revitalization of the area.

"We're really excited to have that particular mix of tenants actually," Sharrer said. "The Growing Together Tulsa group is a nonprofit that is deeply, deeply embedded into the Kendall Whittier neighborhood. So to have that home here for the long term is real exciting for us.

"HP Engineering is a rapidly growing firm. ... That many professional jobs coming to the square is a great thing. And Katie Orth with Orth Contemporary - obviously, being an art and cultural district, to have a beautiful art gallery as a part of the mix is just everything we could have asked for."

Stephens knows that block of Kendall Whittier well.

Managing broker of JPS Commercial Real Estate, Stephens oversaw the deal for TPC Studios' move into the Swinney Hardware building, and he has long known Clark Wiens, co-founder of Circle Cinema Foundation.

Familiarity aside, however, he said he couldn't have completed the project without historic tax credits

"The historic tax credits, without question, were the reason we were able to do it," said Stephens, emphasizing that those credits recently have been threatened by a bill in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. "It (development) is new. It's on the tax rolls. ... And we're bringing 35 to 40 people (employees) every day down here Monday through Friday.

"It's just hugely important. It's filling a demand."

Red Brick Capital Management purchased the building for $560,000 last May and proceeded to jump on infrastructure improvements in the structure, which had no electricity or plumbing, Stephens said. A year later, the place is at capacity.

Orth Contempary held an exhibition last week. Growing Together still is unpacking and HP Engineering is set to begin a move-in later this week.

"You don't have to look very far, frankly, to see what's going on and who's doing it and what they are doing," Stephens said. "To me, I feel fortunate that we were able to get the building and do this at this point in time. Three to four years from now, I see a whole lot of difference in just this intersection alone.

"Even though we are bringing office components, I also wanted a gallery if we could find somebody to do it. Katie Orth filled that niche quite nicely."

Lynda S. Ozan
Architectural Historian/NR Program Coordinator
State Historic Preservation Office
Oklahoma Historical Society
Oklahoma History Center
800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive
Oklahoma City, OK 73105
405-522-4478

The mission of the Oklahoma Historical Society is to collect, preserve, and share the history and culture of the state of Oklahoma and its people.

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