With Faith of Investors, Downtown Tulsa Reawakens
For decades, the Mayo Hotel had been the societal symbol of Tulsa’s reign as the Oil Capital of the World, catering to oil barons with names like Getty, Skelly, Phillips and Sinclair. But its closing in 1981 underscored the city’s faded status as Houston became the focal point of the energy industry. “No one was buying anything in downtown Tulsa, and we bought the building not knowing if downtown was going to come back,” said Macy Snyder Amatucci, Mr. Snyder’s daughter and vice president of Brickhugger, the family’s development company. “Everyone thought we were crazy.”