ENID — The owners of Broadway Tower announced this week plans to sell the 15-story downtown Enid office building.
Enid businessmen Bob Berry and Lew Ward, principal partners in Tower Investment Co., confirmed Wednesday plans to sell the building in an open real estate auction March 15.
Tower Investment, comprised of Ward Properties Inc. and D.C. Bass & Sons Construction Co., was formed in 1981 to purchase and manage Broadway Tower.
Ward and Berry stated they are selling the historic office building in order to better focus on other business interests, and to allow new, younger ownership to take over.
“There’s just so many things going on, and we have to take care of business,” Ward said, referring to his primary business interest as chairman of Ward Petroleum Corp. “We’ve got an oil boom going on right now and it’s pretty exciting, but it’s taking a lot of time and resources that need to be spent more intelligently.”
In a separate press release, Ward said he plans to concentrate all of his “available time in the exploration of oil and natural gas reserves in Oklahoma and Colorado.”
Berry, who is president of D.C. Bass & Sons Construction, said his business needs to withdraw from Broadway Tower to devote more energy to its real estate and construction interests in Enid, Tulsa, Boulder, Colo., and Tyler, Texas.
But, Berry stressed the move to sell Broadway Tower does not represent a withdrawal from his business and civic interests in Enid.
“If anything, narrowing our family’s Enid focus will allow more time for me to concentrate on one of our family’s core values … the betterment of Enid,” Berry said. “I intend to make that my primary endeavor in every way I can, as fast as I can.”
“We have a lot of real estate here in Enid, and if Enid isn’t growing and prospering, that doesn’t help our family one bit,” Berry said. “We couldn’t be any more sold on Enid, on downtown and on the Broadway Tower, but we’re more sold on having some younger people come through with some new ideas.”
Berry said he and Ward felt it was “time to step aside,” and “pass the torch on” to younger owners who can manage the tower and “treat the tenants there the way they need to be treated.”
Berry estimated about 75 to 85 percent of the building’s office space currently is leased and being utilized, and he predicted the building will continue to well serve Enid’s downtown district.
“I believe young professionals will be a growing cadre in Enid in coming years, they’re going to be very prominent ... rental properties are going to be very important, and the Broadway Tower will continue to play an important role in downtown office space,” Berry said. “It’s just time to pass the building, and Enid, on to younger hands.”
The sale of the building is being managed by Chartwell Group Commercial Real Estate Brokers, based in Cleveland, Ohio.
Berry said Chartwell was chosen because of the firm’s experience in auctioning large commercial properties, and because the company came well recommended in the vetting process.
The building, listed at 88,000 square feet, with 75,000 square feet of associated land and parking for 169 vehicles, is scheduled to go up for open auction at 11 a.m. March 15.
The suggested opening bid for the building is $250,000, but there is no reserve price for the sale.
In a press release for the auction, Chartwell indicated the property is being sold “without reserve and regardless of price” because the owners wanted to “send a clear message to the marketplace that they intend to sell the asset.”
Berry said he and Ward opted for an auction instead of a listed sale because “the building’s in great shape, and there’s no reason to spend a year and a half trying to match up the property with a buyer.”
Broadway Tower, located at 114 E. Broadway, has stood as the tallest building in Enid since its construction was completed in 1931.
The Art Deco building, built by McMillen & Shelton Construction Co. from a design by George E.V. Blumenauer, of Enid, and Layton, Hicks and Forsythe, of Oklahoma City, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985