The Montgomery - already a success
Well, already, 2 dozen people have expressed an interest in leasing an apartment at The Montgomery, and real renovations haven't even begun on the property. The completed complex will have 56 units.
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"Tanenbaum tests the waters: Downtown luxury apartments to open with two dozen tenants
by Ted Streuli
The Journal Record
9/3/2004
Dick Tanenbaum is ready to show his stuff.
Standing in the living room of a sixth-floor model apartment, the developer looked out a window that framed a view of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and the tree-lined streets of the city beyond.
"You'd live here, wouldn't you?" Tanenbaum said. "I would."
So far, about two dozen people have agreed and signed leases. They'll become The Montgomery's first tenants on Oct. 15 and the newly finished models are likely to fill the balance of the 56-unit building. There are eight open floor plans for the 13 urban-luxury-feel apartments on each of the third through sixth floors.
But Tanenbaum said Oklahoma City was a much different market than other parts of the country.
"If you announce a project in Houston, they sign up and it's sold out before it's built," he said. "Here, they want to see it first."
The 106 people who have expressed an interest in making the former Montgomery Ward department store their new home - but haven't signed a lease - now have a chance to see samples of the finished product. They'll find high ceilings - 14 feet on the sixth floor, 12 feet on the other floors - that are open to the building's plumbing and duct work, a design decision that makes the apartments feel like lofts.
"The thinking that we all had was to bring a big-city feel to the apartments, a contemporary lifestyle that Oklahoma's not used to," said interior designer Karl Bertoch, who partnered with three other designers to create the models. "I think these apartments feel more urban than the majority of the apartments you find in Oklahoma."
Bertoch said warm colors were used to foster a relaxed, casual environment and that while each residential floor offers the same layout, the building's structural components make the units unique. Among those elements are large pillars that have provided support since the structure was built in 1929.
"The columns add a lot," Bertoch said. "They remind you that you're in an old building. You really get a sense of the building itself rather than just being in a box."
The one- and two-bedroom layouts range from 1,000 square feet to 1,500 square feet, with large closets and still-sparkling stainless steel appliances. The carpets and walls are neutral earth tones, the counters faux granite, the cabinetry mahogany with a gray glaze. In some apartments, the bedroom is separated only by a partial wall, a classier version of something one might expect to see in an Austin Powers film; other floor plans have a more traditional - and private - arrangement.
"You're either an empty-nester or a professional working downtown," Tanenbaum said. "It's no Bricktown - it's not for kids."
There isn't much chance that the building's concierge will have to spend his time helping besotted college students into the elevator. The apartments are priced at $1,000 to $2,000 per month, a range of $1 per square foot to $1.33 per square foot.
"It's about a 20 percent premium for living downtown," Tanenbaum said.
John Maisch, a partner in Egressive Commercial Realty who lives in downtown's newest major residential project, the Deep Deuce apartments, said the success of The Montgomery would bode well for developers pursuing similar projects. Maisch said apartments in the less luxurious Deep Deuce rent for 90 cents per square foot. He agreed that living on the west side of downtown would be a much different environment than the east side's Bricktown area. Maisch said that while Bricktown housing would attract a younger audience and employees from the nearby medical center, the west side would appeal to the audience Tanenbaum is after: higher-income professionals who want to be able to walk to work and arts venues.
"The whole brokerage community is excited and hopes Dick Tanenbaum is successful because it validates the demand for downtown living," Maisch said.
An April 2000 report commissioned by the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority estimated demand for mid-rise apartments like those in The Montgomery at 1,550 units, but that study also concluded that only 390 of those apartments would command rents of $1,000 to $1,299 per month and that there was no market at all for mid-rise housing priced at $1,300 per month or more. Tanenbaum is gambling $5 million that 56 people will be willing to pay the premium prices.
The report didn't concern Downtown OKC Inc. president Dave Lopez. Lopez said downtown development and inflation during the past four years would be a sufficient basis to revise the numbers.
"Anytime there's a new venture such as this, it's important to have a model that works," Lopez said. "We probably have a glut of Class C property downtown. The ability to turn a property like The Montgomery into upscale housing is an additional benefit. The location in the arts district will begin to give us a better mix of the live, work and play vitality that we're looking for downtown."
Lopez said that other multifamily projects planned for the arts district - like Mike Henderson's $25 million Legacy Summit - would create a cluster of residences that could help drive demand.
"I think the modest number of units in The Montgomery makes it a manageable project," Lopez said.
For those willing to pay the price, they'll get city views, a parking garage connected to the second and fourth floors by indoor walkways, retail shops and restaurants on the ground floor and a 16,000-square-foot fitness center in the basement. They'll enter through a tiled rotunda, have on-site security and the services of a concierge.
"It's not all bad," Tanenbaum said.
And while it's Tanenbaum's first foray into residential property, Lopez said confidence in The Montgomery's success is high.
"It's a first-in-market project and Dick's in a position to capture the demand first," he said. "There are risks and rewards that go with that. But I don't think I'd want to bet against Dick Tanenbaum."
Re: The Montgomery - already a success
Originally Posted by nurfe75
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