One of northwest Oklahoma City’s most familiar office complexes is set for a big lifestyle change. Gardner Tanenbaum has purchased Landmark Towers, a three-building office campus along NW 58th Street near Northwest Expressway, in a reported $16.25 million deal and is gearing up to turn the property into apartments. The move slots neatly into a growing local trend of flipping tired office space into badly needed housing.
What the portfolio includes
The Landmark Towers portfolio covers three addresses at 3535, 3545 and 3555 NW 58th St., each rising ten stories. Together they total roughly 300,000 square feet, with listings showing about 160,000 square feet currently available. According to Crexi, the complex sits on about 8.85 acres and was developed between 1969 and 1972. Brokers have highlighted recent mechanical and elevator upgrades, but say persistent vacancy has nudged the property toward an adaptive reuse future rather than another spin of the traditional office leasing wheel.
Sale reported by CoStar
CoStar reports that Gardner Tanenbaum closed on the Landmark Towers portfolio yesterday, for $16.25 million. The buyer intends to convert all three office towers into apartments, according to CoStar, although no detailed construction timeline or unit count has been released. The outlet characterizes the transaction as a single portfolio acquisition rather than three separate tower sales.
Developer's conversion track record
For Gardner Tanenbaum, this play is very much on brand. The firm has been an active player in Oklahoma City’s redevelopment scene, buying and converting older office buildings into residential projects and frequently pursuing historic tax credit financing to make the numbers work. Industry coverage of a recent refinancing and conversion effort, as detailed by Multihousing News, underscores that strategy. The company’s own materials tout multiple local projects and frame adaptive reuse as a practical response to office vacancy that has stubbornly stayed elevated.
Historic protections and tax credits
There is also a preservation twist. The Landmark Towers complex, historically known as the National Foundation (Life) Center, was added to the National Register of Historic Places earlier this month. That designation could shape how the renovation proceeds and may open the door to historic tax credit incentives. KOSU reported on the new listing, describing the towers as examples of new formalist architecture and noting that interest in a conversion had already been circulating. Historic status often limits changes to the exterior, but it can significantly improve project economics through a mix of state and federal credits.
A history of turnover
Landmark Towers has not exactly been a stranger to the transaction column. Local coverage shows the property changed hands in 2008, then landed a $16.5 million refinance in 2015 as part of an effort to stabilize income. Reporting on the earlier sale and refinancing by the Journal Record and a NorthMarq financing release points to repeated attempts to reposition the asset. Those earlier reshuffles, paired with today’s vacancy levels, help set the stage for why a full office-to-apartment conversion is now in play.
What comes next
According to CoStar, Gardner Tanenbaum had not yet released a construction schedule or unit mix at the time of the sale, and the project’s timing will hinge on several layers of review. City permitting, design work and applications for historic tax credits and other incentives typically add months to a conversion plan, so any renovation is likely to roll out in phases rather than overnight. Expect the next clues to show up first in public filings or formal statements from the company, and we will update coverage as those become available.
