Owners of historic Skirvin Hilton hotel in Oklahoma City preparing to put it on market

The owners of the landmark Skirvin HIlton hotel in downtown Oklahoma City are preparing to put it up for sale, with half of the proceeds likely going back to the city.

Marcus Hotels and Resorts joined forces with the city to renovate and reopen the closed, century-old hotel about 15 years ago.

Steve Lackmeyer at The Oklahoman newspaper reported:

Hotel representatives declined to comment on the pending sale, but should it sell, a ground lease for the hotel calls for Marcus Hotels to pay 50% of net proceeds of the sale to the city. The city holds a ground lease and mortgage for the property as part of its assistance in the $56.4 million renovation completed in 2006.

Joanna McSpadden, the city’s economic programs director, said discussions with Milwaukee-based Marcus Hotels officials started earlier this month. Marcus Hotels is not required to notify the city if it puts the Skirvin up for sale, but will have to contact representatives of the Oklahoma City Redevelopment Authority if a sale should be accepted.

“The final numbers of what the city should expect from the sale in respect to the ground lease and mortgage will have to be determined after they accept their final offer,” McSpadden said. […]

Historic features of the Skirvin restored by Marcus Hotels include the façade, the lobby’s wood paneled columns and carved gargoyles, the art deco/ Native American tiled walls in the Park Avenue Grill and the painted plaster ceilings in the top floor ballrooms.

According to a well-sourced Wikipedia article, the Skirvin contained 225 rooms in a 10-story. two-winged tower. A third 12-story wing was added in 1925. In 1929-30, all three wings were leveled to 14 floors with a total of 525 rooms. The hotel is named for its founder, William Balser “Bill” Skirvin, whose daughter, Perle Mesta, became the ambassador to Luxembourg under President Harry Truman.

The Skirvin was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

The hotel also reportedly is haunted, especially Room 1015. Such reports have come from multiple NBA teams in town to play the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Skirvin, built in 1911, was Oklahoma City’s oldest hotel when it initially closed in 1988. After more than a decade, the city bought the property and sought a developer for it. The city eventually provided $22 million in incentives.

According to the newspaper, downtown Oklahoma City once had just one hotel. Now the red-hot district has 19. Multiple celebrities have stayed at the Skirvin in recent years, including Paul McCartney on his now-famous Route 66 trip with future wife Nancy Shevell.

The Skirvin is about two miles south of NW 23rd Street alignment of Route 66 in Oklahoma City.

(Image of the Skirvin Hilton hotel in Oklahoma City by Rusty Blazenhoff via Flickr)