For eight years the historic Palace building in downtown Tulsa sat vacant and decaying except for a ground floor Arby’s fast-food restaurant. A need to expand newspaper operations for the Tulsa World, which headquartered next door and recently had undergone an ownership change, became the impetus for the renovation of the landmark building into a mixed-use building with ground floor retail and eight floors of residential apartments, including 30% affordable apartments; and the addition of the Podium Building to serve the press operations.
The historic renovation funding included a significant investment by the Tulsa World ownership (three times more than the cost to build a new facility for its needs), which was possible with the addition NMR providing $10 million in New Markets Tax Credits to fund the $15 million project.