Despite a fire that damaged a main building at the closed Brookshire Motel last week, the Tulsa Route 66 Commission still is not giving up on redeveloping the historic Route 66 property.
According to a story by Public Radio Tulsa, a fire scorched the interior of the main office building, but the walls and roof are largely intact.
Tulsa Route 66 Commission member Amanda DeCort said a state preservationist will evaluate it soon with the goal of having the Brookshire designated a National Historic Place.
“It’s a little more of a long shot now, but it’s not outside of the realm of possibility,” DeCort said.
That designation could make available federal and state tax credits to offset up to 40 percent of rehabilitation costs. There’s no set formula for the designation.
“If something is more new than it is old, it’s probably not going to make the cut, but being that this is [a] sandstone building on the main office and that the cabins weren’t really impacted by the fire, neon sign’s still there, I’m hoping it still has a chance,” DeCort said.
City Councilor Connie Dodson said the Brookshire may come back as a multiuse property, with retail in some spaces, an RV park in another and the remaining cabins for overnight travelers.
Fire officials believe squatters started the blaze after they broke into the boarded-up property and started a fire to keep warm from the winter chill.
The motel’s neon sign will removed and placed into storage for safekeeping.
The city declared the Brookshire a nuisance more than a year ago. The Tulsa Route 66 Commission earlier this spring tried to find a buyer to save the motel and implored the city to hold off on condemnation as long as possible.
The property had been for sale in the 1990s, but bad neighborhoods near that area likely scared off potential developers. The entire 11th Street (aka Route 66) corridor has seen an upswing in economic activity in recent years, however.
According to Tulsa County property records, David Silver of Plano, Texas, bought the property from the Nathu Patel family living trust Nov. 8 for $70,000. The fair-market value is $228,400.
Little is known about the Brookshire’s history, although its architecture indicates it likely was constructed in the 1940s.
(Image of the Brookshire Motel neon sign in Tulsa by Tom Baddley via Flickr)
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