The Palmera Motor Court hotel will not be built along Route 66, and a nearby “Cry Baby Cry” statue will be moved somewhere else, announced the City of Tulsa.
The city also said last week that a Route 66 interactive experience also would not proceed in that area, reported the Tulsa World newspaper.
According to the city, the developer of the Palmera Motor Court, Sharp Development, “will not be moving forward” with the project. The city provided no reason.
“While no development project comes without hardships, we must recognize that this attempt last year was the city’s third at the site. Project feasibility has been evasive in past development efforts, and we must look for new ideas and ways to move forward,” the city said. “Despite these setbacks, the city remains fully committed to realizing a project in the area that is not only feasible, but is one that the community wants, and that Route 66 deserves.”
Brian Elliott with Sharp Development said the decision to withdraw from the project was a difficult one.
“We’re disappointed,” Elliott said. “To continue would have been to force a deal we weren’t comfortable with.” He did not elaborate.
The 45-room hotel, featuring a pool, restaurant and bar, was to be built across Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza at Southwest Boulevard (aka Route 66) and Riverside Drive, near the historic 11th Street Bridge and the Arkansas River.
Both the hotel and statue projects were placed on hold by the city in April.
Several other Route 66-inspired proposals for the site also have fallen through in the past two decades.
Meanwhile, the controversial, 21-foot-tall “Cry Baby Cry” statue scheduled to be installed at nearby Cry Baby Hill apparently will be installed elsewhere, if it is at all.
Cry Baby Hill remains a key landmark in the city’s annual Tulsa Tough bicycle races.
The statue by Brian Kelleher has been widely derided because of its design and the fact that the creator is a non-Tulsan.
(Artist’s renderings of the proposed Palmera Motor Court hotel and the “Cry Baby Cry” statue)