In Bartlesville, Oklahoma, the only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed skyscraper ever successfully constructed has become mired in chaos — and is soon set to hit the market.
Built in 1956, the iconic Price Tower has been struggling for some years now, but local outlets are now reporting that its owner, Cynthia Blanchard, is preparing to list the copper and concrete building for sale amid financial fallout.
“It’s been a process to come to that decision, but it’s the right one for the tower,” Blanchard told Fox23 News this week, adding that there have been potential buyers for some time. “We did have a couple of private opportunities that we explored so we’ve been doing our due diligence for the last four-five months with different situations.”
As she prepares to offload the badly in debt tower, which she purchased as part of private investment group Copper Tree Inc. for just $10 last March, the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise reports that an inn in the building has laid off its employees and tenants have been given 30 days to move out.
“It’s sad; we have been one of the longest-running tenants up there,” the director of sales and marketing for Bartlesville Monthly Magazine, Keith McPhail, told the outlet. “We hate to see chains on the door of one of the best buildings in the world.”
While a sad development for the historic structure, the pending sale and its associated fallout are far from the first time the tower has been in monetary trouble.
The “The Tree that Escaped the Crowded Forest,” as the building is nicknamed, has been in and out of hot water since 1981, when it was sold for storage, then donated to a nonprofit.
“I’m not sure what the path forward is right now,” Visit Bartlesville’s executive director Maria Gus told 2 News, simultaneously acknowledging that “we really believe there is a path forward” but still there “are a lot of people who are concerned.”