Dwight Capital Provides $44.5M Loan on Downtown Oklahoma City Historic Rehab
By Mack Burke December 16, 2020 4:23 pm
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New York-based alternative lender Dwight Capital has provided $44.5 million in debt to local Oklahoma City developers Charlie Nicholas and Gary Brooks in order to finance the residential portion of the pair’s historic redevelopment of the landmarked skyscraper First National Center in Downtown Oklahoma City, Commercial Observer has learned.
The proceeds of the mortgage will help facilitate the build out of The Residences at First National Center, which will sport around 200 units spanning the ninth through 32nd floors of the 33-story, 493-foot Art Deco tower.
The developers are utilizing not only private construction financing, but public money as well — via the sale of state and federal historic tax credits — in order to complete their project.
Brooks and Nicholas bought First National Center — formerly called the First National Bank Building — for just $23 million a few years ago, and then began their campaign of planning and obtaining the necessary approvals to redevelop what is the third largest tower within Oklahoma City’s skyline.
Altogether, when the historic rehab is finished, the skyscraper at 120 North Robinson Avenue will feature the apartment units; a 149-key Autograph Collection hotel from Marriott International; two restaurant outposts; and about 35,000-square-feet worth of commercial, event and retail space, according to information on the website of The Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City. There are also plans for a heated rooftop pool, outdoor kitchen areas, a theater, dog park, game room, coffee bar, and fitness center within a 14th floor deck for use by the tenants of the apartments. Residents will also have use of an adjacent parking garage that will also be rehabbed as part of the development.
The developers are going to rehab the property’s “Great Hall” located on the second floor, and open it to the public to double as a lobby for the hotel and a museum.
Constructed in the early 1930s, the property is in the heart of Oklahoma City, near the Myriad Botanical Gardens, the Cox Convention Center and the Chesapeake Energy Arena, the home of the National Basketball Association’s Oklahoma City Thunder.
