“Our first, second and third choice is an Oklahoma City somebody who knows the potential of Bricktown to come in here and buy it,” R.T. McLain said.
 

The McLain family has owned the block - which now includes hot spots Bricktown Brewery, The Daiquiri Zone and Abuelo’s and will have the upscale Simply Fondue early next year - for more than 40 years.
 

McLain and sons Rich, Mike and Scott want to sell while the selling is good.
 

Bricktown is the retail-entertainment star in downtown Oklahoma City’s renaissance and is probably the best-known aspect, nationally, of the broader Metropolitan Area Projects. Investors and potential developers know about MAPs and are watching Bricktown, said Tim Strange of Sperry Van Ness, who is handling the sale at 1 p.m. Tuesday with David Gilmore of Gilmore Auction & Realty.
 

Not that long ago, developers would say, “We just don’t like to develop in ‘C’ metropolitan area,” R.T. McLain said. “That’s not the way they’re talking now. They say, ‘We’re impressed with the way you got the Hornets in there.’ And, ‘Your MAPs program is the pattern for many other cities.’ ”
 

Strange said he has had inquiries from California, Texas, Nevada, Arizona and other states, as well as from across town.
 

R.T. McLain said locals have been unusually candid - not cagey - in asking direct questions. He, too, was direct: If the property doesn’t sell - the family will build a parking garage on part of it.
 

“We’re not (diversified) developers,” said McLain, who brought what became Bunte Candy Factory to 1 E Sheridan around 1960 and has been a real estate investor for years. “We’re a whiz at developing a brew pub, helping Abuelo’s arrange their space.”
 

The McLains once planned a mixed-use development called “The Factory” - playing off the candy factory - but the idea melted when the other major investor backed out. The Factory would have included housing - something the McLains still see as important for the property to develop to its full potential.
 

The key, they said, will be if a buyer recognizes that the solid city block - seven buildings bounded by Main Street, Sheridan Avenue, Oklahoma Avenue and the Burlingtron Northern Santa Fe Railroad tracks - has the best potential as a piece.
 

“We’ve had many people interested in this building or that building,” Scott McLain said. “Keeping it all in one piece allows it to become something really special.”
 

Auctioning the property, with an $8 million minimum bid, is an unusual approach. It might not sell. One expert said there hasn’t been enough time since the announcement of the auction for potential buyers to conduct the usual due-diligence research. Scott McLain said the income stream - nearly $1 million per year - would give a buyer time to determine how best to further develop the property.
 

But the family is ready to move on. Mike McLain said the property is throwing the family’s investment portfolio out of balance. It’s time to diversify the family holdings, he said.
 

R.T. McLain said that while the family wouldn’t turn down a good investment opportunity elsewhere, they intend to keep proceeds from the divestment here.
 

“Not only do we hope to capture the Holy Grail of Bricktown development” by selling for a handsome return, he said, but the McLains hope to spread it around and create investment-development ripple effects in other parts of the city.
 

“The McLain family will reinvest in many other areas,” R.T. McLain said. “We live here.”
 

“And we’re not going anywhere,” Scott McLain said.