CHICKASHA – California businessman Chet Hitt told Southwest Ledger he has spent more than $1 million renovating the 122-year-old Savoy Hotel building at First Street and Chickasha Avenue, and mid-September is his target for opening the remodeled Savoy 1902 BBQ and Deli.
In a related matter, Hitt sold the Steelman Building at 410 W. Chickasha Ave. less than 24 hours after the City Council split 5-4 in approving a central business district building grant that initially received the council’s blessing a year earlier. Also because of the vote on the CBD grant for The Gathering Venue, Hitt said he’s having second thoughts about developing a distillery in Chickasha.
Hitt, a 1982 Anadarko High School graduate who lives in Apple Valley, California, unveiled an ambitious, multimillion- dollar redevelopment plan for “Old Town” Chickasha when he addressed the City Council in December 2022.
Afterward he bought and remodeled the vacant Mill Building, bought and renovated the Savoy Hotel, leased the Rock Island Railroad Depot, bought the building next to the Savoy that houses The Speak bar and lounge, bought and renovated the building that housed Canadian River Brewery, bought the abandoned Livestock Nutrition Center grain elevator and a nearby brick building, and purchased the Steelman Building.
His “Town’s End” development is located south of the U.S. 62/Choctaw Avenue viaduct in the vicinity of the popular “Leg Lamp” statue.
“I’m down to short strokes” on the Savoy, a two-story building that houses a combined total 14,988 square feet of floor space, Hitt said. “It has taken longer than I expected.”
Nearly the entire wooden ground floor of the Savoy building was rebuilt, and permanent hardwood flooring was installed.
Beneath the first floor, new water lines were installed to the kitchen, the bar, and the remodeled restrooms. New electric wiring has been laid throughout the Savoy.
A large, steel “God Bless America” sign manufactured by Hitt employees will be augmented with red, white and blue glass letters and will hang above the kitchen and order counter.
A smoker will soon be installed on the east wall. A “Wilson’s BBQ” sign salvaged from Anadarko will hang on the Savoy’s east wall. The sign still needs some new light bulbs and sockets.
A 20-foot-long bar built in the late 1800s is positioned on the west wall.
“I think we can seat 80 patrons” in the Savoy dining area and accommodate a dozen bar stools, Hitt said.
Pallet wood paneling is visible on walls throughout the building.
Pipes for an overhead sprinkler system were installed.
Particle board material laced with asbestos was ripped out of the ceiling and replaced with copper tin tiles.
Quarter-inch-thick steel framing to support new windows in the front of the Savoy Hotel was constructed on-site by workmen directed by Hitt’s construction foreman, Rene Umana. Clear glass panes were installed in the frames, and each window can be opened “to allow a cool breeze to blow through” in the spring and fall, Hitt said.
A metal stairway to the hotel’s upstairs was constructed and positioned on the east side exterior of the building. At the top of the stairway is a 4-foot-wide catwalk that leads to where one of the upper windows was removed and the opening was enlarged, framed and boxed in for a newly installed door.
The upper floor of the Savoy sagged 3 inches until Jason Knowles of Dynamic Fabrication in Chickasha, assisted by Umana, installed steel I-beams to provide support.
Hitt said he intends to operate a haunted house during October and November, in observance of Halloween, followed by a “Nightmare Before Christmas” theme in December. Both events will occupy the upper floor of the Savoy and of the adjacent building occupied by The Speak.
“I want the Savoy to become the No. 1 haunted house in Oklahoma,” Hitt said.
The Halloween haunted house and Night Before Christmas productions in the Savoy will be for adults only; milder versions for children will be operated in the railroad depot, he said.
Vote on CBD grant prompted sale of Steelman Building A central business district building grant that initially received the City Council’s blessing a year ago nearly foundered in a narrow, split vote Aug. 5.
Based on a pr eliminary project cost estimate, the council on Aug. 21, 2023, en dorsed a CBD grant to reimburse Open Skies Group up to $160,000 for renovation of a building at 611 W. Chickasha Ave. that previously housed the Chickasha schools’ bus garage.
In late 2021 Leandro David Da Silva’s Open Skies LLC bought the 8,000 square-foot building, which was constructed almost a century ago, and remodeled it. “ The Gathering Venue” an event venue, opened for business in late July.
CBD grant applicants are reimbursed $1 for every $3 of pri vate funds invested in rehabilitation of property located between First and Seventh streets and Kansas and Choctaw avenues, if the property is used for retail trade that produces sales taxes or use taxes for the City of Chickasha.
Da Silva submitted receipts for $366,049 in expenses and thus the reimbursement grant was $122,016. However, he told the Ledger he actually spent more than $500,000 on the r enovation project and also intends to construct a new sidewalk in front of the building.
The grant application sailed through the council in August 2023 without opposition. One year later, with a new council, the grant was barely approved, 5-4.
Hitt said that vote prompted him to se ll the Steelman Building, which he bought from Wade and Phylis Steelman, the day after the council vote. “After all the mone y I’ve invested in the Savoy, and then for the council to change their mind on f unding after their preapproval of a gr ant, I will no t develop the Steelman Building.”
He also said he ’s considering whether to scrap his plans for constructing a 10,000 square-foot “Stillhouse & Grill” which would feature a 1,000-liter copper still that would produce a minimum of half a million bo ttles of spirits each year.
Hitt said he’s concerned about whether the city council will approve his application for a CBD building grant that would reimburse him somewhere between $266,000 and $374,000 for expenses he has incurred on the Savoy. He also is awaiting a $52,525 compensation grant for renovations made on the Mill Building.