By Cathy Spaulding
Nearly 95 years after the Turner Hotel hosted Muskogee visitors, the hotel’s annex soon could host apartment dwellers.
The third and fourth floors of the Turner Hotel annex, 322 N. Third St., are being converted into 14 one-bedroom apartments, which could be open the second week in April said building owner Jeanette Hunter. The four-story building at the corner of Third and Court Streets is better known as the Doyal Bland Building because of the bold blue letters that used to cover the building’s north windows. Doyal Bland was an office supplier. Offices take up the building’s first two floors.
The apartments are about 500 square feet and would cost $695 to $750 a month, with utilities, water and Internet bills paid. The apartments will be cable TV ready, but that would cost extra, she said.
Hunter said about more than half the apartments already are leased.
“People from the Muskogee Courthouse are interested, and people working in a new hospital wing,” she said. “People like being close to shopping and they like the upper-class feel of the apartments.”
Project manager Denyfa Tidwell said the apartments’ location is a main draw.
“It has a great central location, if you like to walk,” she said. “Arrowhead Mall is a few blocks north. There are restaurants like Pisano’s or Club Lunch.”
Electrical workers are installing wiring, ceiling light fixtures and wall sconces. Painters are putting finishing texture on the walls. Plumbing fixtures and counters have yet to be installed.
Hunter said she had considered putting tile in the hallways similar to the hall tiles on the first two floors.
“But I decided carpeting might be quieter,” Hunter said.
Tidwell said at least one wall in each apartment would have exposed brick from the original building. The brick will be stripped and treated to improve its appearance, she said.
Hunter also manages Shadowwood Mall with her husband, Jim Hunter. In 2007, the Hunters bought the Royal Casket building at 302 N. Main St. and hope to turn the 108-year-old building into loft apartments. Jeanette Hunter said she first wants to get the Doyal Bland apartments finished.
Reach Cathy Spaulding at 684-2928 or cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com.
