Boutique Motel Part Of Tulsa's Peoria Development

There's a new plan for development along a stretch of Peoria Avenue. A hotel and restaurant are planned - but there's surprising news about their plan for parking. Anyone who has been in Tulsa

Tuesday, September 19th 2006, 11:15 am

By: News On 6

There's a new plan for development along a stretch of Peoria Avenue. A hotel and restaurant are planned - but there's surprising news about their plan for parking. Anyone who has been in Tulsa a while can recognize the improvements around 6th and Peoria.

News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says the already successful Hotel Savoy is going to be part of a development that will included another hotel - and a restaurant in between.

"Where we're walking will be one of the dining rooms." Kasey Rideout is part of a local development group banking on the success of downtown. "We grew up in Tulsa, we are Tulsans at heart, we wanted downtown and this area to come back."

She's developing almost every inch of two nearly empty lots. It's going to be Latin theme restaurant and bar, with the Savoy on one end - and a new hotel called the Pearl in what is now the Brookridge Apartment building. The J.J.'s Hamburger Restaurant will stay - and it's not connected to the new development.

So much is being built in the area, there's no room left for parking. And that's just the way they wanted it. â€œSo we're going to make it as easy as possible for the people to park in the area and get to the restaurant. But we also don't want to tear down buildings and put in surface parking lots, so we want to utilize the parking that is already here.â€

Since the restaurant will have so few parking spots on site, they've worked out a deal for people to park at the American Legion and at the Village at Central Park. On weekends, they'll have valet parking.

The plans call for a street front development - so people outside can see in and people inside can see out. Customers won't be isolated by a parking lot from their surroundings. The developers believe that will make the restaurant fit in better with the neighborhood.

They hope it will encourage more of the pedestrian friendly developments than many other cities already have. Now to do this - they had to get permission from the city for less parking. The city wanted 73 parking spots - they wanted just 5. The city of Tulsa agreed - so construction starts soon and there will be a restaurant open by Christmas.