Historic Tulsa Hotel To Reopen This Spring

Rick Wells, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- A suburban hotel built in the late 1920's is coming back to life on 11th Street in Tulsa.

The Campbell building, now on the National Register of Historic Places, opened as a hotel in 1927. It was the Casa Loma Hotel in the 1940's. It's been largely vacant in recent years it will be a hotel again when the renovations are complete.

Aaron Meek, Group M Investments:"We thought it would be a fun project."

Rick Wells, News On 6: "Has it been fun?"

Aaron Meek, Group M Investments: "No, it was a huge undertaking."

Aaron Meek and Group M investments bought the building a couple of years ago and are recreating a hotel here.

"This would have been a businessman's hotel," Meek said.

The trolley line ended just up the street at TU so this would have been an inexpensive stop for traveling salesmen for example.

"If you had been the Fuller Brush Guy," Meek said.

You might have stayed here for a week and worked the neighborhood. The building was put on the National Register of Historic Places back in September. The Designer Showcase got wind of the renovation project and thought what a great place for the designer showcase.

"The showcase has never done a hotel before," said Paula Dellavedova, with the Foundation For Tulsa Schools.

A few years ago they did a bed and breakfast, but this is a first.

"It'll be fun to see what forty designers do with the same kind of space," Dellavedova said.

The hotel will be ready for the designers to move in in about a month. When it's finished it will have 26 guestrooms and some common space.

"It is one of the best opportunities for the designers because they can be a creative as they want to be in each room," said Stacy Turnipseed, with the Designer Showcase.

That's good news for the hotel, which is set to open this summer, because each guest room will differ from the rest.

The Designer Showcase, which benefits The Foundation for Tulsa Schools, opens April 29 and runs through May 22nd.