Winning entry for Tulsa Route 66 mixed-use development includes car vending machine

Local developer David Sharp has been chosen from three suitors to construct a Route 66 mixed-use development on the banks of the Arkansas River in Tulsa that will include a car vending machine.

The City of Tulsa is expected to formally announce the decision on the development today, but the Tulsa World received confirmation from one of the members of the selection committee:

“All of the proposals were excellent, and so we had a lot of great ideas to choose from,” said City Attorney Jack Blair, who served on the selection committee while in his former role as the city’s chief operating officer. “But for the Sharp proposal, one, it is very eye-catching.”

Nothing is more eye-catching about the proposed development than its multi-story classic car vending machine, which will stand in front of the hotel and interpretive center facing historic Route 66.

Visitors will be able to rent the classic cars to take them for a spin along historic Route 66.

The project is expected to open in mid-2026 to coincide with the Route 66 centennial.

An illustration accompanying the World’s story shows a so-called “car tower” with 12 classic rides stacked up elevator-style for a renter’s choosing.

The development off Southwest Boulevard and East 11th Street (both alignments of Route 66 in the city) would include neon lighting and other classic designs in its architecture, restaurants, events center, 40-room hotel, 55 apartments, bike rental site and other businesses.

Other developers that submitted proposals were Continental Overseas, Ross Group Development and Hund Capital. Ross was associated with the Tulsa-based Route 66 Alliance, but it didn’t make it to the finalist stage.

The Route 66 Alliance in 2015 announced an initial 42,000-square-foot, $19.5 million Route 66 Experience project at the site, with a projected groundbreaking of summer 2016. Such a facility in Tulsa had been proposed as far back as 2003.

But years of fundraising for the project came up short, and projected groundbreaking dates were repeatedly pushed back until the city apparently lost patience.

The city of Tulsa in October 2021 announced a request for proposals for a Route 66 center at the site. The city has $5 million in public funds available to assist with the project. The request desired architecture that would create an”iconic-style destination” that is “compatible with views of the river and skyline.”

(Hat tip of Allison Spicer; image of the pedestrian bridge at the Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza site in Tulsa, near the proposed site of the Route 66 mixed-use development)