Does Bricktown have 'rooms' to grow?

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By Steve Lackmeyer
Published: June 24, 2008

Last week I got lucky. After mentioning that more hotels were in the works for Bricktown, a deal popped up at the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority's Wednesday meeting confirming plans for a Candlewood Inn and Suites at Lincoln Boulevard and Reno Avenue.
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So are more hotels likely? Definitely. Is every new hotel announcement downtown a welcome development? That's the question that civic leaders might want to ponder as the city endeavors to become a tier-two convention market.

Certainly hotel rooms were being craved a decade ago. Consider that downtown a decade ago was struggling to get any convention business with just a 395-room Sheraton hotel. And back then, prior to millions spent on renovations, the hotel was flagged with the lesser-known Medallion Hotels.

It was Missouri developer John Q. Hammons who gambled on Oklahoma City's fledgling Metropolitan Area Projects initiative to improve its downtown. He got into the game first, building the 311-room Renaissance Hotel in 2000 and then the 225-room Courtyard by Marriott next to Ford Center.

The game already was changing when Hammons decided in 2002 to build a 151-room Residence Inn in Lower Bricktown. By then, the city was closing a deal with developer John Weeman and Marcus Hotels and Resorts to renovate and reopen the Skirvin as a 225-room Hilton Hotel. At the same time, Tulsa developer Paul Coury was renovating the Colcord into a 108-room boutique hotel.

All that brought downtown to a respectable tier three convention market of 1,415 rooms, with all but the Residence Inn including restaurants, clubs and amenities sought by convention planners.

Room rates at most of the hotels, meanwhile, have pretty much stayed at a healthy $129 or higher.

The 200-room Hampton Inn and Suites being built next to the AT&T Bricktown Ballpark is changing the game. Designed to provide rooms at a lower price point, the Hampton Inn and Suites does not match the existing downtown hotels in terms of amenities or services.

Ditto can be said for the 95-room Holiday Inn and Express set to be built later this year at Oklahoma Avenue and Main Street on the northwest end of Bricktown. Expect the same for the 99-room Candlewood Inn and Suites.

And so it goes for two other hotels being considered for Bricktown. A third hotel likely to be announced for the entertainment district this summer has higher aspirations, as does a hotel that is in advanced planning stages for the Oklahoma Health Center.

So, assuming nothing stops construction of the Holiday Inn and Express and the Candlewood Inn and Suites, downtown is now looking at 1,809 hotel rooms within two years. If only one or two of the other hotels now under consideration become a reality, downtown will exceed 2,000 rooms.

But not one of these hotels will hit the magic room count that is critical for the city's aspirations to become a tier-two convention market — a conference hotel of 600 or more rooms.

It wasn't that long ago that the city's dream team of attorneys and financial whizzes were scrambling to keep the Skirvin renovation on track. The culprit: Fears that the previous financial forecasts for a reopened Skirvin wouldn't hold in light of Hammons' announced Residence Inn.

So, keeping in mind no deal is in sight yet for a large convention hotel, is just any new hotel still good news for downtown Oklahoma City?

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Gary, why would you care whether more direct flights were cancelled from OKC - when you refuse to pay for them and drive to Dallas instead? The same goes for hotel rooms. If a private investor wants to build a new hotel - great, but don't count on me passing another tax increase to build hotels for "out of towners". I have not seen a penny of all this new money! I have not seen income, property, or sales tax come down either. The maps idea was to get the ball rolling using the maps money and then let the private investors take over - so lets let them in order to have a competitive market, and not overbuild the area. Lets use the tax payers money for new roads, education, and other infastructure needs.
Lawerence, Oklahoma City - Jun 25, 2008 12:03 AM
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I wonder how much influence bringing a NBA team to OKC will have on the renovations and investments being built downtown. I'm no economists but I can only imagine that having a NBA team playing a consistent 40 home games will draw more people and further validate the investment of a 600 room hotel or more. Course I'm just speculating
Danney, Oklahoma City - Jun 24, 2008 8:51 PM
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Agreed Myers. The only thing I would be more worried about is the cost to fly to our city. I went on my honeymoon last June to Disney World and instead of paying $500 a ticket to fly out of WR, we drove to Dallas and paid $175 a ticket. I am hoping not too many more airlines will cancel their direct flights to OKC.
Gary, Oklahoma City - Jun 24, 2008 2:12 PM
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I think the rising travel costs bode well for OKC. Conventions aren't going to cease, they're just going to become more price conscious. We're centrally located and have relatively inexpensive dining/entertainment costs.
myers, Peir - Jun 24, 2008 11:44 AM
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I think any hotel, big or smaller is good for downtown. We need the hotel space for all other events also, including Big 12 tournaments. The continued hotel growth will continue to spur new events. I would imagine that once I40 moves and development continues to the unused land south of I40, that area will be prime for more hotels. We must not get ahead of ourselves, Bricktown and that area is still fairly new compared to most cities districts.
Jess, Warr Acres - Jun 24, 2008 9:54 AM
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This all sounds great but one thing to consider is whether the meteoric rise in gas prices is causing travel to be more and more expensive - I wonder what will the impact be on convention business?
Gary, Oklahoma City - Jun 24, 2008 9:29 AM
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Jeff, I believe you are correct on your assumptions of the hotels. From what I have read in the plans of the C2S, the boulevard would go in place of I-40 (we all know that by now) and the new convention center and hotel would go just south of the Boulevard across the street from the Ford Center.
Gary, Oklahoma City - Jun 24, 2008 9:22 AM
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Unfortunately, with talk of a new convention center as part of "core to shore" or maps 3 on the horizon, don't count on a convention center hotel being built any time soon. No one is going to drop that kind of money until they know where the new convention center will land. Just returned from a convention and Memphis- that might be a place OKC needs to take a look at. We stayed at the convention center hotel, a Marriott, but just across the street was a Crowne Plaza. Down the road, a spring hill suites, comfort inn, and a Holiday Inn select, just across the street from the venerable Peabody Hotel. Memphis has found a good mix of high and low price point rooms, which makes them a winner for conventions. By the way, just where would one put a convention center hotel right now? There's no space available near the cox center to do that right?
Jeffrey, Oklahoma City - Jun 24, 2008 8:51 AM
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