200 room Aloft Hotel coming to downtown Tulsa

[ZYX]

Summer seems like a reasonable starting date for this project. So, do you happen to know of an updated groundbreaking date for Cimarex Tower?

Sorry to be so nit picky, but you said "finalizing designs" and "aLoft hotel renovation". Does that mean that this is in fact an aLoft?

[SXSW]

Summer seems like a reasonable starting date for this project. So, do you happen to know of an updated groundbreaking date for Cimarex Tower?

Sorry to be so nit picky, but you said "finalizing designs" and "aLoft hotel renovation". Does that mean that this is in fact an aLoft?

I work in construction.  Just relaying what I hear. 

[sgrizzle]

Summer seems like a reasonable starting date for this project. So, do you happen to know of an updated groundbreaking date for Cimarex Tower?

Sorry to be so nit picky, but you said "finalizing designs" and "aLoft hotel renovation". Does that mean that this is in fact an aLoft?

the original article in the world said it would be aLoft, the second one in Tulsa.

[ZYX]

Thanks. 

[ZYX]

Interesting write up:

http://tulsabusiness.com/main.asp?FromHome=1&TypeID=1&ArticleID=52547&SectionID=3&SubSectionID=46

[cannon_fodder]

If a true assessment - then by all means take more time to design it right.

[SXSW]

There was an article about this in the World today.  They are working on interior demolition and will start construction in the next few months with the hotel opening "late summer' 2012.  Looks pretty cool...a definite improvement from what is currently there.   

[we vs us]

I was very surprised to hear how far along they are.  I hadn't heard anything about it at all, but if opening is -- give or take -- a year away they've done a lot of work.

[TheArtist]

Wonder how long it will take before a drunk cheerleader from Owasso to drives down that hole?  

[swake]

Wonder how long it will take before a drunk cheerleader from Owasso to drives down that hole?  

Shhh..

That's the new Darwinian plan to protect the fountain.

[ZYX]

There was an article about this in the World today.  They are working on interior demolition and will start construction in the next few months with the hotel opening "late summer' 2012.  Looks pretty cool...a definite improvement from what is currently there.   

Wow, I love the blue neon down the sides.

P.S. Anyone else notice that all the new renderings have R8s in them?

[sgrizzle]

Wow, I love the blue neon down the sides.

P.S. Anyone else notice that all the new renderings have R8s in them?

You cater to your audience, kinda like when all the rendering for upgrading the Ford Center had Fords in them.

Of course, now's it the Chesapeake gas Arena or whatever, so I guess it will just have a bunch of chubby people eating burritos.

[DowntownDan]

I hope they tear down, replace, or at the very lease revitalize those ugly gazebos in front of the courthouse.  I assume they would.  I also assume there will be some security out front to keep the vagrants that hang out by the courthouse and the library away from the customers.  I'm not a hate on the homeless kind of guy, but from a business perspective, it would probably not be good for business.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this project and how the YMCA project transform that area.

[we vs us]

I hope they tear down, replace, or at the very lease revitalize those ugly gazebos in front of the courthouse.  I assume they would.  I also assume there will be some security out front to keep the vagrants that hang out by the courthouse and the library away from the customers.  I'm not a hate on the homeless kind of guy, but from a business perspective, it would probably not be good for business.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this project and how the YMCA project transform that area.

I actually think the vagrants will be the major issue when the hotel finally opens.  On paper, it's a forward thinking brand in a great place being built by a company with a successful history.  And most of that will translate into day to day success, but I really do think that the sheer number and visibility of the homeless folk hanging around the library area is going to cause a problem.  Hotels have very public reputations, oftentimes shaped by perceptions and factors out of the hotel's control.  If this project gets tarred as the "homeless hotel" or similar, it will have a very difficult road ahead (and that might be even more important for this hotel than for most others, since the freshness of the brand is so central to its success).

The problem is kind of out of the Aloft's control, though.  A security perimeter can only be pushed so far, and the homeless folks range pretty far and wide in that area.  I'll be interested to see what their solution (if any) really is.

[stageidea]

I don't think the homeless will be that big of an issue.  I have stayed in plenty of high-end hotels with homeless people hanging out in front of it.  I didn't think less of the city or hotel for it.