Excerpts from a News OK interview with Marva Ellard, Ray McMinn, and Joanie Elder.

Marva Ellard, Mike Meye, and a group of investors won the bid on the old Sieber Hotel in an auction in October 1997. Says Marva, “ It was a beautiful building...I drove by it hundreds of times and could not understand why it was vacant. It seemed someone like someone needed to do something. Structurally it was in good shape. It was full of trash and had been vacant for almost 25 years by the time they started construction. Structurally, it is very much a new building with the exception that the hallways are the same configuration, the windows are all the same configuration - although they are new windows. When Joanie and Ray’s grandparents owned it, there were 80 something rooms here; now we have 30 apartments. “We have all new electrical, plumbing, heat and air, new floors, new tile, new plumbing fixtures; I mean pretty much everything is new except for the shell of the building and the floor plates.”

Ray McMinn (his grandparents owned The Sieber hotel in the 1930’s - 1950’s.) “This was just a regular hotel. People were living here. It was packed, it was full. Of course with all the hospitals around here, people would come from out of town. It was just a regular place to live in the 1950’s when I was living here. There was a drug store, and there was a beauty shop, and I think after a while they put in a bar there somewhere...and the restaurant of course. It started going down in the ‘70’s. Delro moved out in ‘76 and after that it really went down. Some other people bought it and tried to make it do, but they weren’t able to. They didn’t have the money I suppose. “

Marva: “I didn’t think that this part of Midtown could be what it could be unless The Sieber was rehabilitated. ...We pay water, trash, sewer, do all the maintenance - light bulbs, air conditioner filters - we do all the maintenance. Tenants pay rent, cable, internet, telephone, whatever they want and electric. 
     “The windows always had bull-nose detail to them...they are slightly deeper now and the sills are deeper because we furred them out and insulated (the windows), but that is very accurate to how they were. Then it did have a picture rail up, so we put a picture rail up. We thought that would have been a detail that was very common in the 20's when this was built. The Kohler fixtures that we use are a series called Bancroft, which Kohler originally brought out in the 20's and has recently re-relased. So, we thought these were the proper fixtures to use because they could have been in this building originally.”

Joanie Elder (her grandparents owned The Siber hotel in the 1930’s - 1950’s.)”There is a picture of me and of our whole family from right (inside one of the renovated apartments). At that time I was about 12 and at that gangly age. (I hate the picture) but it is our whole family, our whole family gathered together and that was taken right here. (pointing to the area between two windows.) It brings back a lot of memories.”

Marva - “We think it is successful because of all the struggles we’ve gone through to get this building completed and get it done the way we wanted it to be. We could have cut a lot of corners that we didn’t cut. We could have spent a lot less money on the apartments themselves, but we wanted it to be right and we wanted the people to say "Oh I live at The Sieber" and people to say" Oh, that’s cool!"

Excerpts from another News OK article, by Steve Lackmeyer

Marve Ellard: “A prior group had tried to turn the hotel around in the early 1980s and was in the midst to installing carpeting and doors when the failure of Penn Square Bank ground everything to a halt.” Ellard took her time; she carefully plotted how to rebuild the landmark while staying within guidelines to capture historic tax credits and loans from the Murrah district revitalization fund. Now Ellard and partners Robert Magrini, Todd Scott, Mike McDonald and Tom Stapleton are celebrating the project’s completion.

"It wasn’t for the money,” Ellard said. "My background is preservation, but with much smaller projects. I just never thought this part of MidTown would be what it could be unless the Sieber was rehabilitated. It was a pivotal property in this part of town. And we’ve torn down way more than we ever should have.”

Magrini, who has law offices nearby, is stunned by the progress of not just the Sieber, but MidTown as a whole. He said a business acquaintance recently observed that with the opening of hip restaurants and shops in MidTown, the city has come around to a vision that most thought was crazy.

A recent tour of the renovation shows a building that has been completely rebuilt; the hotel that once featured more than 80 rooms is now home to 38 apartments and space for ground floor restaurants and shops. Apartments designed by Michale Stapleton offer modern amenities and yet reflect the Art Deco era of the hotel’s heyday.

Since leasing began in the fall about half of the apartments have been rented without any publicity or advertising (units start at $1,000 a month). Incoming president of Downtown Oklahoma City Inc., Jane Jenkins, is among the incoming residents.

Ellard said the waiting, the hard work, the uncertainty was all worth what she sees today. "It was a beautiful building and somebody needed to do something,” Ellard said. "And it was us.”

The flash above shows a small snippet of the amazing work they did to rehabilitate and renovate this lovely, historic building.

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