Despite promises from the new owners to revitalize the building through new development, including upscale restaurants, nothing permanent materialized. Instead, the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise estimated that the debt ballooned to $2 million.To keep the building afloat, Copper Tree allegedly began selling off some of the building’s furniture and artifacts, which are protected through an easement donated to the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy in 2011 by the Price Tower Arts Center as part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site nomination. The easement legally prohibits removing these items from the site, and the conservancy sought legal recourse to remedy this.Ultimately, as part of bankruptcy proceedings, the building went to the auction block. “[The opportunity to bid] went out to 900 people, and we were the only ones that turned a bid in,” Snyder tells AD. “So we were either really smart, or not that smart. But I think about that building when I go to sleep at night. It’s so cool. It’s truly one-of-a-kind.”“I was worried my dad would go into a five-year depression if we didn’t get the building,” Snyder-Amatucci jokes.They plan to spend $10 million over two years to transform the building into a mixed-use development featuring both apartments and a hotel, with long-term plans to revive the Copper Bar located on an upper floor as a food and beverage site in some form.Since the building has stood vacant for the past year, the McFarlin Group discovered significant damage when they finally gained access: two feet of water had flooded the basement because the pumps failed after the building’s electricity was shut off the previous December. Other leaks were found on the upper floors.However, the Snyder family remains confident in their decision to purchase the tower. They plan to lean on their past experience in both restoring historic buildings and operating hotels. The Snyder family previously purchased the Mayo Hotel, a historic art deco building in Tulsa, after it had been vacant for thirty years. Following a $42 million renovation spearheaded by Snyder, it reopened in 2009, and the family operates it to this day through umbrella company Brickhugger LLC. In 2017, Brickhugger LLC purchased the Triangle Building in downtown Pawhuska, Oklahoma, which resembles the Flatiron Building in New York, and converted it into a hotel. Brickhugger LLC will also operate Price Tower.Price Tower’s fate remain uncertain. Photo: Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images