The main tenant is Globe Life and Accident Insurance Co., which sold the building for $4 million to Mark Beffort and Roy Oliver through a sale-leaseback agreement. The company signed a three-year lease to keep its 50,000-sf headquarters in the 60%-leased building at 204 N. Robinson Ave., which has another 20 tenants on its roster.

The $8-million renovation's primary expense will be the conversion of the top seven floors, totaling about 30,000 sf, into seven for-sale residential units, ranging from 2,500 sf to 5,000 sf. "We think the rest of the building will complement this product well and it gives us something else to offer to clients," Beffort says.

The rest of the building, though, won't be ignored. Beffort says upgrades will be made to the common areas, elevators and HVAC systems as workmen take the upper floors down to the studs to rebuild them as condos. He estimates renovations will take about one year.

The quoted lease rate for office space is $14.50 per sf gross. The residential price points have yet to be set. Grubb & Ellis/Levy Beffort in Oklahoma City is handling the leasing.

Beffort and Oliver now own six assets in Oklahoma City. Their holdings include the 734,000-sf Leadership Square at 211 N. Robinson Ave.; 564,000-sf Oklahoma Tower at 210 Park Ave.; 269,000-sf Corporate Tower at 101 N. Robinson Ave.; 299,000-sf Valliance Tower at 1601 Northwest Expwy.; and 152,000-sf One Benham Place at 9400 Broadway Ext.

In Austin, TX, Beffort and Oliver own the Domain 45 at Burnett Road and Braker Lane. The 481,000-sf campus is leased to Armonk, NY-based IBM Corp. Beffort says he and Oliver are interested in looking at acquisition opportunities in other areas of the Southwest although their stomping ground is Oklahoma City.

Beffort says the intent is to hold City Place for the long term, perhaps one day passing it to his heirs. He tells GlobeSt.com that City Place represented somewhat of a different challenge from their usual acquisition in that it is a well-positioned asset that really needed some care to make it work. "This is a great building with great historical significance," he says. "We're really excited about what this can offer."