quote:
Originally posted by Aa5drvr
I still laugh at the interview KRMG did with Hammons when his hotel had its grand opening out here.
They asked why he didnt build his new hotel downtown.
His answer was like, (Big Sigh)"Well because nobody goes downtown. You have to build a hotel where the people are. A hotel doesnt attract people to an area."
He went on to say that when he built his hotel that the hot real estate was either side of the Creek Tpk.
I didn't hear the interview, but it is apparent from his track record that Mr. Hammonds knows a thing or two about the hotel industry.
He knows that the Tulsa Metro Chamber Vision 2025 Vision of, "Build It and They Will Come", is shere lunacy.
It only sounds sane if you're spending
OPM:
Other People's Money. Namely, taxpayer money.
$100,000,000's gone into the pockets of the Flint and Rooney construction companies, as well as "wetting the beak" of the sole-sourced bond underwriting departments of two locally-owned banks.
I doubt if the Arena or renovated convention center will foster enough economic revival to justify another hotel downtown.T
The Arena will be a seldom-used White Elephant, vacumning the city budget for operating costs: Maintenance, cleaning, utilities, security, etc.
The "buzz" about downtown is real, however, but small-scale and incremental like the Brady District and the Blue Dome District. They have attractions that make people want to come downtown.
Unfortunately, most of both Blue Dome and Brady areas were flattened by urban renewal decades ago, and the former brick warehouse districts that they were formerly comprised, long gone...
Nonetheless, they are slowly building up a critical mass to create, ultimately, a local destination location.
Kind of like the Dallas West End, which in our last few years has actually been back on the decline.
When the Spaghetti Warehouse took a gamble on a vacant cotton warehouse in the Dallas West End warehouse district back in the 1980's, they were literally the ownly restaurant around, surrounded by boarded up warehouses. SLOWLY, other restaurants, and later retail and hotels were attracted to the area.
It was a slow, years-long process. And, besides the low-cost business model for their physical plant in old brick warehouses, the West End had something else to offer:
The infamous Dealey Plaza is only a couple of blocks away.
Would the San Antonio Riverwalk be as vibrant without The Alamo adjacent?
Tulsa could actually do the same thing if they would tie Brady and Blue Dome Districts to a well-planned, well-executed, well-documented
Museum of Remembrance & Reconciliation of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot. John Hope Frankin could be the keynote speaker at the Ribbon-Cutting ceremony.
THAT would provide the critical peripheral attraction like the Alamo and like Dealey Plaza to get people downtown, with the impacted Greenwood area only a short distance away.
The proposed East Village Wal-Mart Superstore may make a difference downtown, because if you live or work downtown, it's also nice to be able to shop there, as well.
Home Depot seems to be doing pretty well downtown.
