Brookside Baptist Church Redevelopment at 36th and Peoria: What's Next?

"We're as much in the dark as anybody," Tim Clark, president of the Brookside Business Association, told the Tulsa Flyer in February. At the time, the old Brookside Baptist Church at 3615 S. Peoria Ave. had changed hands the previous June, and nobody on the street had heard a word about what came next. Four months later, a fence was up and crews were tearing the building down.

The demolition answers whether something will happen on that corner. It doesn't answer what. The clearest guide to that is three blocks north, at 33rd and Peoria. Another bank-led project there has already gone through the argument this corner has been stuck in since 2021. That argument is about how much building a Brookside lot needs to make money, and where the neighborhood will let that building go.

A 1952 landmark and a plan that called for its return

The church went up in 1952. It was part of the street long enough that the Brookside Business Association used to hold meetings inside. Dr. Chet Thomas, a veterinarian at City Veterinarian Hospital across the intersection, remembered the day the church told the group the building was past repair and would cost too much to fix.

The first plan for what came next kept the congregation in the picture. In November 2021, Brookside Church began meeting at 3105 E. Skelly Drive and partnered with CBC Builds and the Ross Group on a mixed-use project for the corner. The plan included apartments, restaurants, retail, parking, church offices and an event venue, with a newer church facility the congregation planned to move back into. That same month, two people helped save the stained glass windows, including the ones behind the baptistry. Tulsa World photographed the work on Nov. 15, 2021. None of the coverage since then says where those windows went.

Here's how the corner went from that plan to a demolition fence:

The building also took vandalism during those empty years. The two sale prices cover slightly different parcels. The Tulsa Flyer's $3.27 million figure for June 2025 includes an adjoining strip of land, and the $4.95 million Armstrong Bank paid comes from the Tulsa County Assessor's record for the church parcel. Still, the land drew a price close to $5 million less than a year after its previous sale, while the building on it sat boarded up.

The math every plan for this corner has run into

In December 2023, KJRH asked Councilor Jayme Fowler why the 2021 plan had died. He pointed to rising interest rates, inflation and regulatory complications on the site, and said the developers had lost their appetite. By the time the business association looked back on it, the plan was remembered as a seven-story apartment complex with restaurants, retail and parking. "We thought that was the moon," Clark said.

That seven-story figure is the key to the whole corner. The Tulsa Flyer reported that the neighborhood has fought development proposals taller than two stories in recent years. Joe Trizza, co-owner of New York Bagel Cafe, described the bind plainly:

"Something needs to happen there, but whoever develops it has to be able to make money. In order to do that, you're going to have to develop it in a way that a lot of people are not going to like."

Trizza said he was open to anything "within reason," including high-rise apartments or condos, retail, and possibly a parking garage. Thomas pictured retail on the ground floor with loft apartments above, as long as the height stayed "reasonable" for the neighborhood. The two business owners who sit closest to the site agree on the mix. The disagreement is over height.

Three blocks north, the same argument was settled underground

At 33rd and Peoria, the BOKF Foundation is planning a five-story mixed-use building on the site of a Bank of Oklahoma branch. It would include a new bank branch, retail space, 75 luxury apartments and a rooftop bar. After neighborhood protests in late 2023, the project sat on the shelf for about two years.

It moved forward through a trade on parking. On March 24, 2026, the Tulsa Board of Adjustment unanimously cut the required 10-foot buffer between the building and the homes to the east down to zero feet. The condition was that the parking be built entirely underground. The developer had argued that the lot's irregular L-shape would leave an underground garage too tight for cars to move through if it kept the 10-foot setback. City planners said that if the developer went back to the 10-foot setback, it would keep the right to build parking above ground.

A neighbor told the board, "I would prefer the below. I'm okay with the zero variance," calling it the "lesser of two evils." Shawn Linfoot, who leads the Save Brookside effort, said the project coming back in small phases left some neighbors feeling the process was outpacing them, and he expected more Board of Adjustment meetings.

The March vote didn't reduce the building's size. It decided where part of that size would go. The developer gets to build right up to the property line, and the cars that would have been in a visible garage go below ground. KRMG described the agreement as one step in a longer process. Residents and their legal teams said they would watch the next phase closely.

What Armstrong Bank has said about 36th, and what it hasn't

Armstrong Bank is based in Muskogee and has been in business since 1909. Here's what the public record shows as of the most recent reporting, dated June 30, 2026:

1. Ownership. County records list Armstrong Bank as owner after the March 26, 2026 purchase.
2. Expected use. Matt Morgan, vice president of the Brookside Business Association, said, "It's going to be high-end retail and restaurant." KRMG reported that this is the association's understanding and that the exact plan isn't clear yet.
3. Site work. Before the teardown, crews were removing hazardous materials such as asbestos, which Morgan said is common around the piping in buildings from the 1940s and '50s.

Several things haven't been reported. No tenant, architect, rendering, building height or construction timeline has appeared in local coverage, and no July through September report confirms the lot is cleared. The 33rd Street project is a different case. Its height, unit count and garage location have all been through a public hearing.

The two corners now have similar owners, and they're at very different points in the process. One bank has a five-story plan and a negotiated condition on its parking. The other has a cleared, or nearly cleared, lot and a general description of retail and dining passed along by the business association. Tulsa resident Tommy Lowe told KJRH he would rather the building had become a church again, "but it's a great corner lot that's going to be utilized on this busy street."

The rest of Peoria kept filling in

While the big corners waited, smaller openings moved into existing buildings without a public hearing. Little Belly Izakaya, from partners Sheamus Feeley and Marco Herrera, took over the former Pei Wei at 3535 S. Peoria Ave., just north of the church site. News On 6 featured it in July. Techy Tulsa, a phone and computer repair shop run by Dwight McDonald, opened at 3807 S. Peoria Ave., Ste. K, by mid-June. The street work is close to done as well. A city construction map published by the Tulsa Flyer in April listed South Peoria from I-44 to East 41st Street as substantially complete, with punch-list items left.

Reusing an existing building is how Peoria gets a new restaurant in a matter of months. A full corner takes longer because it needs new construction at a scale that has to pay for itself, and 36th and Peoria is the next lot to go through that process.

If you live near 36th or 33rd and want to talk through what these projects could mean for your block, or for a home you may sell down the road, I'm glad to share what I'm seeing along Peoria. Reach out to Mary Lou Doudican. Let's Connect.