A 6th new hotel downtown

[rdj]

And just think, only 5-6 years ago, there were only 871 rooms downtown, split between the Doubletree and Hyatt. That was it. We've gone from two hotels to seven and doubled our room count, with another 636 rooms and seven new hotels to be added in the next 12-18 months. What a transformation! As the planner of a large conference to be hosted downtown in September, I wish we had a hotel large enough to accommodate 700-1000 people by itself. Right now, meeting/conference planners have to piecemeal accommodations together for their attendees.

Holiday Inn City Center has been downtown for years. 

[dsjeffries]

Holiday Inn City Center has been downtown for years. 

It was run as the Downtown Plaza Hotel (a dump) for a long time and then closed. It came back to life in late 2009 or early 2010 when Holiday Inn bought it and did a complete remodel.

[Markk]

It was run as the Downtown Plaza Hotel (a dump) for a long time and then closed. It came back to life in late 2009 or early 2010 when Holiday Inn bought it and did a complete remodel.

Had someone into town for business years ago when it was still the Downtown Plaza Hotel.  When I asked how his room was last night, his response was "It had an air conditioner with two settings:  off, and loud"

[dbacksfan 2.0]

It was run as the Downtown Plaza Hotel (a dump) for a long time and then closed. It came back to life in late 2009 or early 2010 when Holiday Inn bought it and did a complete remodel.

Is it actually owned by IHG, or is it like most everything under the "Holiday Inn" banner, a franchise? I know that the vast majority under the various HI names are actually owned by investors/investment groups.

[rdj]

It was run as the Downtown Plaza Hotel (a dump) for a long time and then closed. It came back to life in late 2009 or early 2010 when Holiday Inn bought it and did a complete remodel.

Wasn't it the Great Western under the Best Western flag in the years before it was the Holiday Inn?

The Boulder Grill is actually not a bad spot to grab a low-key dinner with a Marshall's and watch a ball game.  The hotel & restaurant are owned/managed by a group out of Springfield.

[swake]

Wasn't it the Great Western under the Best Western flag in the years before it was the Holiday Inn?

The Boulder Grill is actually not a bad spot to grab a low-key dinner with a Marshall's and watch a ball game.  The hotel & restaurant are owned/managed by a group out of Springfield.

Yes, and it was a Ramada before that. And a Holiday Inn originally.

[jacobi]

Yes, and it was a Ramada before that. And a Holiday Inn originally.

I remember working at the Double Tree about 10-12 years ago.  While the Adams Mark (now Hyatt) was our competition, there was a sense of mutual respect.  The Ramada was always spoken of in tones of amused contempt.  It was very run down and we would always hear complaints about the place.


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[SXSW]

I just heard about this one today and didn't see it on the map: new 5 story, 110 room Residence Inn at 5th & Denver.  Andy Patel already owns the L-shaped parking lot around the YMCA.  From the rendering it looks like this will extend along 5th between Denver and Cheyenne.  I don't know if they plan on sharing a lot or garage with the YMCA Lofts.


http://www.anishhotelsgroup.com/media/The%20Journal%20Record%20Article.pdf

So here are the new hotels proposed downtown and starting construction in 2014-15:
- Residence Inn - 5th & Denver - 110 rooms, 5 stories
- Hampton Inn at One Place - 3rd & Cheyenne - 120 rooms, 7 stories
- Hilton Garden Inn - 2nd & Cheyenne - 134 rooms, 7 stories
- Best Western - 7th & Houston - 82 rooms, renovation of vacant 5 story building
- Holiday Inn Express - Cincinnati & Archer - 100 rooms, 5 stories
Total: 546 rooms

And the "proposed" hotels with no set construction dates:
- Hotel that is part of Wil Wilkin's development across from ONEOK Field - anyone know the latest on that?
- Zip Inn in First Place Tower
- Another Patel hotel in the Parker Drilling building at 3rd & Main - he owns the building but hasn't announced any plans yet

[TheArtist]

Looks good.  Good fenestrations along 5th with just enough architectural and material differences to make it interesting, and great canopy and awnings.  Very pedestrian friendly which is great for that street.

[cannon_fodder]

What sucks is the hotels, convention center, and BOK center being largely removed from nightlife, museums, and places for people to easily spend money!

[BKDotCom]

Let's keep this ball rolling!
I too am opening a hotel downtown.
Empty lot @ Archer & Guthrie
high visibility to 244/44
It's going to be awesome
Air Conditioning, cable TV, in-house bail bondsman, the works.

[SXSW]

What sucks is the hotels, convention center, and BOK center being largely removed from nightlife, museums, and places for people to easily spend money!

As downtown builds up it won't seem as far between the above and existing retail/restaurant districts. The walk down 5th from Denver to Elgin, for example, feels a lot shorter than the walk down 3rd because of the built environment, the presence of retail and restaurants and a nice streetscape. The key will be to eventually have a streetcar to tie them together, and focus development along the lines.

[TheArtist]

Having high quality pedestrian friendly streets can make walking distances seem shorter and quite enjoyable.  If we could encourage the creation of the right built environment, the walk say from Boston Ave Church to Blue Dome and Brady Arts could be an easy enjoyable stroll.  Right now I hesitate to send people walking from my shop at 6th and Boston to the church.  One could also easily walk from the Arena to say the Pearl District.  Those types of distances in a good city are nothing.  And you don't even need transit for an area that small really.  As I had mentioned in another thread about Portland being startled to discover that their transit ridership was going down, and then also noticing that the number of car trips on the streets were also going down, but then discovering that what was going on was that the number of pedestrian/biking trips were up.  If your built environment gets better, aka more pedestrian friendly, people enjoy walking more and for longer distances.  I would say creating a high quality, pedestrian friendly built environment would be a higher priority than transit for quite a while.  It will get us more "bang for the buck" quality of life wise and make us more competitive with other cities.  It could be a "killer app" that could help boost our growth up to a higher level.  Even Dallas with it's high growth (for other reasons that we can't hope to replicate, or perhaps even want to) doesn't have really good quality pedestrian friendly environments, especially in it's downtown area.  We could beat them, and other cities in the region, at that game and pull more buzz, people, jobs, and companies our way and increase our growth, including urban tax revenue growth.

[DowntownDan]

Walking from there to the Brady or Blue Dome Districts is not a big deal.  On extremely hot days, or for people who think walking a few blocks is tantamount to torture, most reputable hotels will have a free shuttle to take you those few blocks.

[Weatherdemon]

Walking from there to the Brady or Blue Dome Districts is not a big deal.  On extremely hot days, or for people who think walking a few blocks is tantamount to torture, most reputable hotels will have a free shuttle to take you those few blocks.

BOk to Blue Dome seems like a very long walk as there is nothing at street level except parking and building lobbies. Looks like a long desolate stretch. Need something to liven it up and inform people of what is just down the road.

BOk to Brady isn't really all that inviting. The bridge is nice but you cross it and it looks like little to nothing is there except milk and the homeless. Need some good signage along the way letting people know what is really over there.

Blue Dome to Pearl is a stretch IMO. As much as I walk downtown, I would likely drive from downtown to Pearl.