Tulsa Commercial Real Estate – Learn About the Historic Atlas Building

Tulsa Commercial Real Estate – Learn About the Historic Atlas Building

By Clay Clark – U.S. SBA Entrepreneur of the Year & Cofounder of Fears & Clark Tulsa Commercial Real Estate Group

Having lived in Tulsa for the majority of my life and for my entire adult life, I am in danger of becoming one of those citizens
who lives near a beautiful part of America’s history and does not even know it. As with the people who live in Orlando who
have never been to Disney World, and the people who live in Minneapolis, Minnesota who have never been to the
“Mall of America” (America’s largest commercial retail mall), I have been one of those people who has lived in a city
without ever taking the time out to explore the history around me.

As our team has recently began devoting more and more time marketing Tulsa commercial real estate in the downtown area,
I have had the opportunity to learn more and more about the forgotten history of downtown Tulsa. One building in particular
has really caught by attention is the Atlas Building. Perhaps it is because I am a super independent serial entrepreneur
who feels that Atlas Shrugged is the best book of all time, or perhaps it is because I love the name Atlas, either way I am
very interested in this building and its history, and thus I will attempt to share it with you during the course of this article.

The Atlas Life Building is a historic building located in the center of downtown Tulsa. This building is 12 stories tall and it
was designed by Rush, Endacott & Rush (don’t act like you don’t know who those guys were). The building was actually
completed in 1922. Just mentally marinate on that for a second. Think about 1922. What was happening in 1922? America
was very different back then, yet this building is still standing. The building is actually located at 415 S. Boston Ave, where
it is squished right between the historic Philtower and the Mid-Continent Tower. On May 19th of 2009, it was added to the U.S.
National Register of Historic Places. I am not sure who decides a building is going to be added to that list, and I am not sure
how much paper work it takes to get a building on that list, but I am sure that it is on that list.

If you were to visually look at that building you would quickly notice that it’s most recognizable feature is the four-story neon sign
above the main entrance of the building. This sign makes the Atlas Life Building a popular landmark for tourists to the city
of Tulsa. The building itself is faced with a red brick, with white accent marble ornamentation concentrated at the third, eleventh,
and twelfth floors. At the peak of this building is an ornate and intricate cornice accented by the crouching statue of Atlas. The building
is seven bays wide at the base. Apparently “bays” are used to measure the width of historic downtown properties. As you move from the
1st floor to the 2nd floor the building narrows to three “bays” to allow some separation from the taller buildings that sandwich the building.

The building has an actual leasable total square footage of 86,231 square feet. The ground floor of this beautiful building is home of the
Tulsa Press Club, Baytide Petroleum and the Atlas Gril The Pearson group bought the building in 1997 from the Tulsa Public
School system. On January 6th of 2006, the building was sold by the Pearson Group to the Navajor Properties LLC, a company
connected to and controlled by Maurice Kanbar the prolific inventor and entrepreneur who has recently bought up much of
Tulsa’s historic downtown. In 2008 Kanbar Properties sold the building to new owners who have sense remodeled portions of this
historic building to make it usable as a Courtyard Marriott Hotel in heart of downtown Tulsa.

The Courtyard Marriott Hotel recently opened up and is enjoying much success today.

For more information about this and other historic downtown commercial real estate properties contact the Tulsa Commercial Real Estate
Leaders at Fears & Clark Tulsa Commercial Real Estate Group today by visiting us online or by calling us today.

By Clay Clark – U.S. SBA Entrepreneur of the Year & Cofounder of Fears & Clark Tulsa Commercial Real Estate Group

posted Monday, September 6th, 2010
posted under: Blog, Real Estate 101