Wright's Price Tower Being Sold for $1.4 Million

John Hill | 28. January 2025
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress

When we reported on the closing and planned auction of Price Tower last August, the owners of the tower, the Copper Tree Group, led by Anthem and Cynthia Blanchard, were making enemies of fans of Frank Lloyd Wright and stewards of his legacy. The Blanchards got the tower for a steal, just $10 in 2023, but they never followed through on their promise to invest $10 million to to “bring the building back to its former glory,” they racked up approximately $2 million in debt, and they started to sell of Wright-designed furnishings to supposedly keep the hotel and other parts of the building open for business. The last drew the ire of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, who contended the act violated a preservation easement in place for the building, leading them to take legal action.

Turns out the McFarlin Building Company had agreed to buy the tower from the Blanchards months before the planned auction in October, so the company took legal action to block the auction, and was successful. Fast forward to January 21, 2025, when Washington County Judge Russell Vaclaw declared in an emergency hearing that the contract between Copper Tree and McFarlin Building Company had to be enforced, as reported by numerous outlets. The hearing was originally planned for next month, but it was bumped up because utilities have been turned off in the building and could, in combination with the cold temperatures this winter, potentially damage the building.

So the sale to McFarlin will go forward, but the $1.4 million will be held by the court, to ensure the furnishings are provided with the building per the original contract, and so outstanding debts are paid. Not surprisingly, Copper Tree filed for bankruptcy on January 22, one day after the hearing. The good news in all of this is that McFarlin has a good reputation in renovating and preserving old buildings, including the Mayo Hotel in downtown Tulsa and Frontier Hotel in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, so the future looks bright for Wright's nearly 70-year-old tower.

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