Yes.

They said that marble floor wasn't original but it seems like a strange priority.

Perhaps they are redoing all the floors on the ground level and wanted to start there and do it right.

I agree Pete and jbrown, I too thought that was a strange "first priority" although I'm sure it was more for show. Too bad (although I'm thankful) that Devon stole their thunder with the press. Heck, try to take the pieces of the marble floor out in sections and then auction it off. I wouldn't mind using it to do a floor or countertop in my downtown condo, and have my own piece of OKC history to tell about!

I was reading yesterday's edition of the City Sentinel (former MidCity Advocate) and found this rendering of the soon to be renovated north lobby and addition of a conceirge stand.

Good follow-up article and blog note by Steve Lackmeyer:

Article: Clock ticking on strategy for First National Tower | NewsOK.com ... the clock is ticking

Blog: So What's the Deal? Read Tuesday's Main Street ... letter by John Hefner, Jr.

I don't know if it's the same barber shop mentioned, but here's a pic of the old 1st National Barber Shop ... I don't know when ... the image was provided to me by Norman Thompson ...

Larger: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49...larbershop.jpg



Here's the rendering provided by Milbank Real Estate showing the proposed Park Avenue Entry ...

Larger: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49...alestate01.jpg



The present "real" north entry is this, by the Hallmark shop ...

Larger: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49...laddition2.jpg



Superimposing the proposed entry over the present real entry would make the proposed entry something like this ...

Larger: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a49...addition2a.jpg



It looks good enough, but it doesn't quite fall in the major news category, I think, and Mr. Hefner's concerns strike a chord with me.

There is a little more in my blog's 1st National update: Doug Dawgz Blog: First National Center

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http://www.dougloudenback.com/downtownOKC.htm
http://www.dougloudenback.com/oklahomacity.htm
http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/

Here are a few additional interior drawings from the owners' website at First National Center - REborn - Milbankre.com

__________________
Doug
http://www.dougloudenback.com/downtownOKC.htm
http://www.dougloudenback.com/oklahomacity.htm
http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/

The article mentions tenants not understanding why tearing up the marble floor in the main entry would be one of the first priorities -- just as mentioned on this thread.

I can see wanting to get the entire ground floor up to snuff, but the owners are doing a bad job of communicating. How many tenants do you think went to their national website to find these renderings? Why weren't they released to the local press?

Steve makes a great point in that column: With Devon Tower on the drawing boards, there will soon be lots more vacant space downtown and FNC better do a lot of work (and PR) if it wants to increase it's occupancy.

The owner has more to say on this matter - I've posted it at OKC Central — All about downtown OKC.

I am staking a lot of my optimism on the reputation of the ownership. Milbank knows how to "do buildings." Their website has a section exclusively devopted to FNC:
First National Center - REborn - Milbankre.com

Steve, it's time for a big thank you for the blog. OKC Central is truly a great compliment to your writings in The Oklahoman. You've done a marvelous job.

I agree, the blog is great Steve!


I'm not jumping on the pessimistic bandwagon here (driven by Spartan). Although I would love to see them announce a massive multi-million dollar renovation with residential included, I don't have a problem with them doing it in phases. How many times have we been burned by developers with big broken promises? Look at Tulsa and the Kanbar fiasco. We should be glad that someone with the pedigree of Milbank is willing to invest at all in Oklahoma City. I'd rather them make one promise at a time. They don't have a history of buying buildings, making small upgrades, and then dumping them back on the market. I don't know why some think that's what will happen. The ripping up of the marble in the lobby disturbed me, but I trust that it will be replaced with something better and nicer.

Let's wait and see.

If you look at their site the building (First National) is obviously very important to them and their portfolio of buildings is impressive.

I say good things will come to those who wait.

I third the "great blog Steve!" sentiments.

The owners are in a tough spot but I've seen some of their projects first-hand here in L.A. and the term quality is more than accurate. They do things right.


But as much as they keep saying they don't want to make promises they can't keep or set expectations too high too soon, their latest announcement seemed to do exactly that.

When you put up signs that say a building is to be "reborn" and then more than a month earlier build anticipation for what you say is going to be a major announcement... Then only announce $1.5 million in improvements which includes tearing out an area that almost no one sees as a high priority, you are going to get a fair amount of backlash.


I know they'll sink a lot of money into that place in the longer term and that's the most important thing. Hopefully, they can patch things up with current and potential tenants and keep that place somewhat occupied until they can get some major work done.


As I mentioned previously, it was only about 20 years ago the existing owners merely gave the whole complex away to charity just to get rid of it. I'm quite sure in another five years or so we'll see substantial improvements across the board and a building and complex the entire city can be proud of.

I agree the PR on this was poorly handled. They shouldn't have teased a major announcement if they didn't have a major annoucement, LOL.

Well said jbrown! As a professional in marketing & PR, I can tell you it was poor PR. I agree with Pete in that Milbank does what it says, but calling it a "major announcement" was wrong, they should have called it "an announcement" or "our next update on FNC".

If "original" is what they are going for I would start by tearing down those two crappy-ass expansion from the 60's and 70's. Those buildings suck. I don't think a new enterance is going to help them.

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I don't know if they really called it a "big announcement", but they knew that it wasn't that big, so they should have just announced it when they did, rather than the "something big is coming"-style tease a month beforehand.

jbrown, they were teasing it as "a major announcement". I'll see if I can find an article.

What's the latest on the First National Center. I know the barber shop has been reopened, even got my haircut there recently and I saw where Devon was expanding but is there anything really going on?

They are five months into the entry / concourse renovation, so I would imagine they would be close to wrapping up what they called "Phase I".

Anybody been in that building lately?

Pete, I work there. Phase I lol.. not even close.

They had the owners down today, so a lot of work got done over the weekend and today. I don't even think they finalized the plans on what to do until last week.

Didn't they tear up the floor in the lobby? Hasn't that been replaced yet?

They started replacing the tile.. last Thursday?

I'll take some pics tomorrow and post em.

They've had a dumpster or two out front for awhile now. It appears they are gutting it out so they can bring it up to modern standards. Let's wait for some of Toadrax's pictures.

Sorry for the delay, I am a noob at taking pictures and the camera on my iphone is scratched up anyway. This is about all that is going on that you can see, there might be a lot of other work going on in places I can't get to.

When you come in from the skywalk.



Ceiling.



Tile.

Thanks Toadrax! Looks like they are moving right along.

It will be very interesting to see what they do after this project is wrapped up.

That tile looks awful. Is it just ceramic?