First National Center

[bombermwc]

I believe the OG&E location was looking to pursue one to help serve as conference space for OG&E and whatnot. Sort of a weird relationship fi you ask me. Ask someone else to build a second tower to house the hotel/conference space that you'll request to use so you don't have to maintain it. I mean I guess that way the room makes money when it's not in use by OG&E, assuming someone else IS renting it, but the ROI on adding a floor or two of conference rooms seems to be a lot better to me than some outsourced model like that...it's just strange. The hotel is really the same way....there are so many options (and will be more), why do this weird thing where they want some sort of un-owned partnership with that developer.

Anyway, I'm astonished that the new FNC owners have been able to find buyers like this. If the buyers are out there now, why where they not out there in 2012? If they're willing to fork over 20million after a 5million sale-off, it just seems CRAZY! Especially if they're doing this knowing that they are going to have to re-develop the thing. If it all holds out, I'm glad parking is going to become part of it (toss all that non-historic ugly crap). If you're a hotel, you HAVE to have it or people simply wont stay there. I would be concerned about the new buyers continuing the cheap road to renovation though. If they can see the thing was sold for 5 and they're having to fork over 20+, there's going to be a much larger radar of cost focused on any effort. Especially if it's going to be one that requires gutting out the piece of the property (albeit the ugliest) that is actually making money.

[Teo9969]

Anyway, I'm astonished that the new FNC owners have been able to find buyers like this. If the buyers are out there now, why where they not out there in 2012? If they're willing to fork over 20million after a 5million sale-off, it just seems CRAZY! Especially if they're doing this knowing that they are going to have to re-develop the thing. If it all holds out, I'm glad parking is going to become part of it (toss all that non-historic ugly crap). If you're a hotel, you HAVE to have it or people simply wont stay there. I would be concerned about the new buyers continuing the cheap road to renovation though. If they can see the thing was sold for 5 and they're having to fork over 20+, there's going to be a much larger radar of cost focused on any effort. Especially if it's going to be one that requires gutting out the piece of the property (albeit the ugliest) that is actually making money.

OKC is *still* a risky investment for outside investors, but it's made up a lot of headway since 2012 mainly in terms of showing that the growth here is sustainable. Any city can have a good year, but OKC has made its most serious strides in the last 5 and every year has brought increasingly bigger/better development as more "infrastructure" has been put in place to ensure success of these developments.

For instance, the amount of hotels that an area can sustain increases with the amount of residents and businesses in an area. Well, in the last 2 years, how much has OKC's downtown housing stock grown? How many more businesses have moved into the area? It's been a significant amount.