Tulsa Company To Transform Arco Building Into Apartments, Preserve Art Deco History

A building that has stood in downtown Tulsa for more than 70 years is about to get a new lease on life.

The Arco Building at 6th and Cincinnati once housed an oil company but was just purchased by a group looking to turn it into luxury apartments.

Jackie Price Johannsen, the president of Price Family Properties, said this is their fourth building they are converting downtown.

The six-story building at 6th and Cincinnati was built in 1949 for the Service Pipeline Company. For years it stood as an office building, but as times changed, so did the tenants and has been empty off and on for decades.

Price Johannsen saw an opportunity.

“The market has been so interesting to watch,” she said. “We have people who are recent college graduates who want to live downtown, we have retirees, we have families living downtown, so really there's no demographic that's not interested in being down here."

Johannsen said they're excited about keeping the essence of the building and its art deco style. The lobbies on each floor have marble from the around the world, and the exterior has a unique look.

"We will preserve a lot of the historic details, for instance this lobby," said Price Johannsen.

Architects are finalizing all of the details, but Price Johannsen said they'll utilize the atrium in the middle, have a lot of light and build parking underneath. And there's even retail space on the bottom floor as well.

"There's just so much excitement about being down here," she said.

Construction has not yet started, so she said tenants moving in is still about a year and a half away.