Reviving The McFarlin

It's 91-years-old and going strong. The McFarlin building is one of the oldest buildings in downtown Tulsa, and it's gotten a major renovation. The News On 6â€™s Steve Berg reports it's been

Thursday, August 30th 2007, 6:00 pm

By: News On 6

It's 91-years-old and going strong. The McFarlin building is one of the oldest buildings in downtown Tulsa, and it's gotten a major renovation. The News On 6â€™s Steve Berg reports it's been on the corner of 5th and Main for a long time, and thanks to its two owners, it will be here a while longer.

It's not the first time that Dale Forrest has been involved in renovating an old building. But he still gets surprised.

"It's been quite an experience to say the least," said McFarlin building owner Dale Forrest.

For Forrest and business partner John Snyder, this restoration has become more civic duty than sweet investment. He says it will likely be a long time before they get back the money they've put into the building.

It's a big sacrifice for a man who ironically makes most of his money paving parking lots. But he doesn't like them as much downtown.

"A lot of these old buildings get taken to the ground, and you end up with parking lots. And a lot of that is happening in downtown Tulsa,â€ Forrest said. â€œWe're losing the beauty of downtown, so we wanted to make a small part in restoring a building, and this is a great old building."

You could easily argue they've improved on it, emphasizing the original wood and brick, with an airy, open floor plan

"We wanted to keep the natural light. We've got good exposure all around the building," Forrest said. â€œDidn't do a lot of walls, wanted to keep it open, and it turned out really well, we've gotten a lot of compliments on how we did this space."

And who knows, it might be profitable yet.

"I think that hopefully downtown will revive and if so, then this will be a good investment," Forrest said.

Forrest has his own office in the building. In spite of the renovation headaches, he likes it.

Watch the video: Old Building Gets A New Look