(Tulsa)

On March 9, 2006 Tulsa Mayor Bill LaFortune announced that Wiggin Properties would receive $3 million in Vision 2025 financing from the City to assist in the renovation of the Mayo Building for luxury rental residential conversion.

The City’s Vision 2025 Oversight Committee and the Downtown Vision 2025 Housing Fund Committee approved four projects.  Mayor LaFortune said, “These four projects were unanimously selected from a total of 10 excellent development proposals.  Tulsa is coming back and coming back strong.  We see so many public and private revitalization efforts underway, and wonderful plans for

The $10 million of Vision 2025 funds are expected to create approximately 166 residential units and upwards of $36.8 million in total investment.

The four projects selected are:  The Mayo Building, by Mayo Redevelopment, LP, at 424 S. Main; the TransOK Loft Apartments, owned by Navajo Properties LLC, at 2 West 6^th Street; the Mayo Lofts (hotel), by Mayo LLC, at 115 West 5^th Street; and the 1^st Street Lofts, by Blue Dome Properties, at 310 E. 1^st Street.

The City’s request for proposals (RFP) was released on August 9, 2005 and the 10 submissions, requesting a total of more than $30 million, were received by December 7, 2005.  The Downtown Housing Fund Committee, which makes recommendations to the Oversight Committee, held nine meetings to evaluate the proposals.  One meeting included a field trip to view each of the buildings proposed for adaptive reuse, as well as to view the sites of proposed new housing construction.  The Committee interviewed each applicant and received a professional financial evaluation conducted by an outside consultant.  The Committee evaluated all 10 proposals based upon a numeric value established by the criteria in the RFP.  The criteria included:  urban quality of project; feasibility; public/private ratios; experience; and number of units.