The tower, which houses a boutique hotel, offices of local businesses, an art gallery and historical museum, and a bar within its 19 stories, announced on Friday that it was closing, that the majority of the staff had been laid off, that tenants had 30 days to move out and that all reservations for the hotel were canceled. On Thursday, the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy announced that it had filed Uniform Commercial Code statements against the Price Tower owners to "put potential buyers on notice that covered items from the collection cannot be sold without the Conservancy’s consent." Earlier this year, the tower's current owners had sold a number of artifacts from the tower's collections, including some items the conservancy said were one-of-a-kind, to 20c Design, a Dallas company that specializes in high-end, mid-century furniture and accessories.
The conservancy holds that those items were protected under its preservation easement with the Price Tower, which has been in place since 2011. According to Barbara Gordon, executive director of the conservancy, the preservation easement is held in perpetuity, regardless of any change in owner of the building. "Our lawyers have been in contact with the people at 20c Design, and their sale of these items appears to be on hold," Gordon said.
"Our next step is to negotiate with them about getting these items back to the Price Tower and to stop any more items from the building to be sold off." The statements were filed with three entities: Green Copper Holdings LLC, based in New Mexico; Copper Tree Inc., registered in Delaware; and Cynthia Blanchard, CEO of Copper Tree.
Blanchard said in an interview Monday that the decision to close the tower was due in part to the actions of conservancy. "We had figured that we could make it to July 31, but we weren't certain how much we would be able to make it beyond that," Blanchard said. "It was obvious that we weren't generating enough revenue to keep the doors open.
"So we made the hard decision that we were going to keep the hotel and the bar open for three days a week, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, to see if we could increase our traffic," Blanchard said. "We thought we could make it through until September, when bookings tend to increase." She said the combination of the conservancy's actions, along with "all this negative press" from some in the Bartlesville media, "just hit us like a bomb.
It was pretty devastating, and we figured the only thing we could do was to close it down." Blanchard confirmed that most employees had been let go, other than "a couple of people who keep the building healthy." She said tours of the historic building — the only skyscraper Wright designed that was built — will continue.
Blanchard argues that, because of the change in ownership — from the nonprofit organization Price Tower Arts Center to the for-profit enterprises that Blanchard oversees — the conservancy's preservation easements are no longer valid. "We stand behind (that) legal position," Blanchard said. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts She said the loss of revenue from the tenants — some of whom, such as Bartlesville Monthly Magazine, had trade agreements for rent — was relatively negligible.
"Most of our tenants pay about $4,000 to $4,200 a month," Blanchard said. "The electric bill for the tower is $15,000 to $17,000 a month." As for the documents filed by the conservancy, Blanchard submitted a prepared response: "As to the Conservancy’s statements about (Uniform Commercial Code) filings, we have not received any evidence of any UCC filings to date.
We continue to monitor those filings and if we receive notice of those, we will take appropriate action to remove them. "We believe the Conservancy’s public statements along with all of the other negative and inaccurate press to date have made the continued operation of the business unviable so we have taken the immediate step of ceasing operations to further assess our situation. "We continue to internally review all of these matters and will take appropriate action against any party we believe has unjustly damaged our business.
" Gordon said the conservancy's concern is the preservation of Wright's built environments. Wright designed every aspect of a given project, down to the arrangement of the furniture and the artwork on the walls. "I think it is really important that anyone who might purchase an item by Frank Lloyd Wright understands the provenance of that item and knows that they are buying it from someone who has the authority to sell it," she said.
The items that the conservancy is seeking to have returned to the Price Tower include a one-of-a-kind rolling directory board, architectural copper relief panels, an armchair, and copper tables and stools, all designed by Wright for the Price Tower. Gordon added that selling off pieces of the Price Tower to maintain its operation is akin to "killing the goose that laid the golden egg." As to what will happen with the Price Tower, Blanchard said selling the building to a new owner is "on our list of solutions.
And that list is growing shorter every day." She declined to say what the asking price for the Price Tower would be. According to press reports at the time Copper Tree purchased the tower, its assessed value was $6,214,060.
"I will say, whoever does step in next will have an easier time of things, because we've done a lot of hard work to clear things up," Blanchard said. "I didn't want to change a lot right at the start because I didn't want to rock the boat with the community. But that ended up upsetting everyone because I wasn't able to make changes as quickly and efficiently as I should have.
" Gordon said that should the Price Tower be sold to new owners, "whoever buys it needs to have a clear understanding of the property, as well as understanding this building. It is not like any other office tower you might come across. Anyone who takes it on needs to know that you have to work with this building, that the building is the one in charge.
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