Solas: Real Estate Reimagined
A visit to the corporate headquarters of Solas Real Estate mesmerizes and delights the senses and immediately begs the question: exactly where am I?
“If you have seen Alice in Wonderland, when you go through the rabbit hole, you are in a different world,” Chad Khoury said. “But as soon as you step into that world, what was normal and expected is now completely removed, because you are no longer working inside the box you have set up for yourself. You are working in a limitless capacity and nothing is impossible. That was the goal in the design.”
From the moment clients walk through the elevator doors, they are flooded with brightly colored murals, specially designed tiles and white walls. The new office boasts eleven rooms that can be used for individual work, meetings, and private calls.
Along with an amazing view overlooking downtown Oklahoma City, amenities include a putting green on one of the office’s two spacious balconies, a soothing waterfall in the foyer and a meditation room with a floor covered with half a ton of sand. It’s all carefully curated to enhance relaxation and mental health for associates and clients. Walls are covered with paintings and murals from local artists like Chelsea Kilburn and Charlotte Strickland. Khoury could easily be describing an over-the-top New York penthouse, the oligarch or scion of business, but the world he’s created is the brand-new offices of Solas Real Estate. Located on the 17th floor of City Place Tower in downtown Oklahoma City, the company is transforming the residential and commercial real estate industry.
“Solas is the company that helps you have a joyful experience,” Khoury said. “Because we are a partner with you. Whether it is your first home… or whether you are an experienced investor. Solas can be as sophisticated as your appetite is. But we are also focused on keeping it simple and efficient.”
Khoury and co-founder Kaci Kaiser launched Solas in 2019, but crafting an office space that spoke to their vision took the better part of another year. Of course, the pandemic slowed progress. The Solas founders, ever the perfectionists, also doubled as the general contractors and oversaw every inch of the design and construction.
“[The new office] is going to let people know that our commitment to quality is different than a lot of the other things they are going to see out there, because we obviously have a great attention to detail,” Khoury said. “We spent a lot of time making sure our clients and associates have a good place to work and have a good environment. It’s just going to set the tone from the beginning of what type of company we are.”
According to Kaiser, Solas was born out of changing needs in the real estate industry. While other companies have moved away from personal relationships to mainly online transactions, they want to develop those connections and educate their clients. “So creating a space that people can not only be motivated and excited about,” Kaiser said, “but that also can push them into thinking outside of the box and having other people who are like-minded around them to help them do that is something I think we are really gunning for in this whole process.”
Khoury said the object is to show clients that Solas represents not only luxury, but also something completely different from other real-estate companies. The incredible 17th floor suite will also open up for community events, which was the plan since inception, hence the 16x20 feet maple wooden ramp built specifically for Solas to put in the middle of the office.
“In Silicon Valley on campuses like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Groupon, they all work very hard to make their associates and employees feel like they are not in an office,” Khoury said. “But they still have efficient spaces to work. That was really our goal here—to have something that really doesn’t exist in OKC.”
One of the core values of Solas is synergy, AKA the creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Khoury and Kaiser want their workspace to reflect a collaborative way of working together as a team.
“We wanted to create a space that was synergistic for the work atmosphere,” Khoury said. “That is so important to getting a creative perspective and refreshing your thought process. We wanted to give people a place to look forward to when going into work.”
photos by Kennon Bryce