Tulsa issued a building permit on Nov. 5 for a new four-story building at 3237 S. Peoria Ave., the old Bank of Oklahoma branch corner at 33rd Street on the north end of Brookside. The permit carries a reported value of $30.2 million.
The project is called The Irving. Next Wednesday, the City Council votes on putting $2 million of city economic development money toward it, the Tulsa Flyer reported on Tuesday.
What the permit says
The permit is plain about it: a "new 4-story building with a basement parking garage containing mixed-use business, mercantile, and restaurant spaces." It's the only permit we hold at the address.
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That $30.2 million is the value reported on the permit, an estimate filed with the city. It isn't a contract amount, and it's well under the totals in the news. The Tulsa Flyer put The Irving at $61 million in one part of its story and $59 million in another. The article doesn't explain the difference.
A free public garage under the building
The garage is what brought the city in. It will have 235 spaces, free to the public, and that's why the city treats The Irving as a public-private partnership, the city's economic development director, Erran Persley, said, according to the Flyer.
The $2 million would come from the city's temporary economic development sales tax fund. It's one piece of an appropriation of about $6.6 million that also covers a childcare center at Tulsa International Airport, an entrepreneurship center on the east side and afterschool programs. At its meeting the week before, the council approved $450,000 in Community Development Priority Project funds for the parking.
District 9 Councilor Carol Bush said she has heard "no pushback whatsoever" on the project. She opened her business in 1987. "We've been talking about parking on Brookside since then," she told the Flyer.
Persley said the project "is expected to open in April 2028."
Two years on the shelf, then an underground fix
The corner has been in the works for a while. A larger plan drew neighborhood protests in late 2023 and was largely shelved for two years, KRMG and FOX23 reported in March.
It came back through the Tulsa Board of Adjustment on March 24. The board unanimously cut the required 10-foot buffer on the lot's east side to zero, on the condition that the parking garage is built underground. The applicant's attorney, Nathan Cross, called subgrade parking "the better deal for everybody involved." Jody Rogers, a neighbor, told the station, "I'm okay with the zero variance."
KRMG named the BOKF Foundation as the developer. The Flyer's story doesn't name one.
From apartments to offices and shops
The building has changed since spring. In March, KRMG described a five-story building with a modern bank branch, retail space, 75 luxury apartments and a rooftop bar.
The permit issued this month describes four stories of business, retail and restaurant space over the basement garage, with no apartments mentioned. The Flyer also calls it a four-story office-retail development. We couldn't find a public statement on when or why the apartments came out of the plan.
Bush told the Flyer she sees The Irving and the Armstrong Bank property at 36th and Peoria as catalysts for growth on the street.
While planning cools nationally
The permit comes as commercial planning slowed across the country. The Dodge Momentum Index fell 9% in October from September, and commercial planning dropped 13.4%, Construction Dive reported. The Irving is past planning. It has its permit.
The council takes up the $2 million at its Nov. 18 meeting, which starts at 5 p.m. and is open to public comment.
See all of Tulsa's latest permit numbers, updated weekly.
Sources
- Tulsa Flyer, on where Tulsa could spend its economic development funds, by Joe Tomlinson (Nov. 10, 2026): tulsaflyer.org
- KRMG / FOX23, "Neighbors and developers reach 'subterranean' compromise over Brookside development" (March 24, 2026): krmg.com
- Construction Dive, "Commercial pullback led to lower construction planning in October" (Nov. 9, 2026): constructiondive.com
- City of Tulsa building permit BLDC-249159-2026.
- Photo: G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons: commons.wikimedia.org
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More numbers: Tulsa, OK building permit activity, updated weekly.