Hampton Inn

[jdsplaypin]

This was posted mid june on the chambers website...

What downtown still doesn't have is enough hotel rooms. But that will change this next year with the opening of the Skirvin Hilton, Colcord Hotel, Bricktown Hampton Inn and Lower Bricktown Residence Inn. At least two more hotels are being discussed behind the scenes. By late 2007, downtown's room count will top 1,600.

http://www.okcchamber.com/page.asp?atomid=397

[ETL]

Any updates? I don't know.

[brianinok]

Has anyone heard of progress on the Hampton Inn? I would hate to think the project is dead in the water. But, people are going to start thinking that if they don't break ground or have a news story over it sometime soon.

[jbrown84]

Yeah I have heard nothing in months. What's the hold up?

[metro]

The hotel is being developed by Wisconsin-based Raymond Management and Marsh Pitman, owner of the adjoining Power Alley Parking Garage. Construction is set to begin by May and open by August 2007.

Steve Lackmeyer got any more info on this?

[Steve]

I'll have a brief update in tomorrow's paper. Project is still alive. Development is a tricky business.
-Steve

[Doug Loudenback]

I'll have a brief update in tomorrow's paper. Project is still alive. Development is a tricky business.
-Steve

Thanks, Steve,

I didn't find it at the Oklahoman's website, but at page 2B of today's Oklahoman is this (unattributed) article:

Boldt hired for hotel

Developers of a planned Hampton In in Bricktown recently announced the hiring of Boldt Construction as general contractor. A ground-breaking ceremony for the hotel at 300 E. Sheridan Ave., just north of the AT&T Bricktown Ballpark, is expected next month, said developer Marsh Pitman.

Pitman, who built the garage, is developing the hotel with Wisconsin-based Raymond Management.

The 200-room hotel will be nine stories high -- the tallest structure in Bricktown when complete. An opening is set for early 2008.

[metro]

Thanks for posting Doug, you beat me to it. Glad to see the project is still alive after months of hearing nothing.

[Watson410]

Has anyone heard anymore about this project? I thought there was suppose to be a ground breaking last month, but i still see cars parking in the parking lot. Any news anybody?

[johnnyboyokc]

well that had a lot to do with ulgy closing so it has been a rumor for a while.........but the people parking cars their are making a bad name for the parking industry (as if it wasnt a negitive industry allready).....remember the soup nazi..........enough said they also run the WH stewart land.........parking is not a conflict it is a service, dont you agree. I understand that booting is a power but they use it as a way to con people out of money!!!!!!!!!!!

[jbrown84]

What are you talking about?

[metro]

yeah johnny your posts are really hard to understand

[BDP]

can you hear me now?

[OKCMann]

I stayed in a 12-15 floor Hampton in Downtown Austin a few months ago. Nice place and affordable to boot. If the one in Bricktown is similiar it will be a nice addition to OKC.

[johnnyboyokc]

well i strayed off the subject there....sorry went on a parking rant.....however the more rooms in bt or dt the better

[Doug Loudenback]

I'm glad that interest remains high about this building, and I, too, hope for some news soon. Guess they won't be doing any groundbreaking today, though ... maybe some ice breaking is possible, though!

Would surely like to hear some news ... I'm guessing that Steve Lackmeyer has something that he knows and we don't!

[johnnyboyokc]

doug we have the same feelings, but more rooms less bitching.........maybe bt is like a wife always bitching

[metro]

Bricktown panel OKs parking, club buildings

By Steve Lackmeyer
Business Writer

Plans for a new parking garage and a nightclub building were approved Wednesday by the Bricktown Urban Design Committee. At the same meeting, developer Marsh Pitman announced that construction will begin next week on a 200-room Hampton Inn.
The entertainment district is going through a wave of construction this year, with steel going up for a five-story condominium and retail complex in Lower Bricktown and renovations wrapping up on three buildings in north Bricktown.

The committee approved two sets of plans for a parking garage that will either rise two or four stories. The property at 3 E Reno, now a surface parking lot, was bought by oilmen John Shelton and Charles Harding last year as part of a bigger development that will include renovation of the upper floors of three adjoining buildings fronting the Bricktown Canal. "Our preference is to build a four-story garage,” Shelton said. "But there are cost restraints we have to look at.” Shelton said the committee's approval should allow construction to begin within the next few months, and the outcome of tax credit applications could determine whether the garage is built up to four levels.

Shelton's architect, Martin Goldstein of Denver-based MM Partnership, agreed to two changes requested by the design committee: creation of store-front windows on the first floor and replacing limestone with brick on upper portions of exterior columns. "It's very friendly, and it fits the neighborhood,” committee member Avis Scaramucci said. "It's a very nice design for a parking garage.”

Shelton said the garage is the first step in redeveloping the block between Reno Avenue, Oklahoma Avenue and the canal. He said the committee will be asked this spring to look at plans for a pedestrian bridge that will link the garage to the second floor of the Zio's building and an adjoining building that was last home to the Laughing Fish gift shop. The project also calls for renovation of the boarded-up Red Ball Building at the northernmost tip of the canal.

In other business, the committee also approved plans for a one-story building at 315 E Sheridan that will be part of a "club row” owned and operated by Jim Brewer and Walter Gillispie. The building replaces a former slaughterhouse torn down by the pair last year without first getting required approval by the committee.

The Hampton Inn, approved last year, was submitted again Wednesday for a modification to screening of roof-top equipment on the nine-story hotel planned for 300 E Sheridan Ave. The change was approved after a one-minute review. Pitman, who had previously planned a ground-breaking ceremony last month, said he needed approval for the change before a construction permit could be issued by the city. The $27 million hotel, to be built by Boldt Construction, is expected to be complete by mid-2008.

"Our price point should be $115 per room,” Pitman said. "It's about $30 to $35 cheaper than anything else downtown. I expect we'll be pretty competitive.”

[jbrown84]

Good news all around!

[okclee]

I hope that the parking garage is built four levels and not two.

The Hampton Inn is really going to give bricktown much needed elevation.

[jbrown84]

I hope it's 4 stories as well. It would be a move in the right direction.

[BDP]

It sounds like the garage will also have some consideration for its surroundings, as opposed to that piece of crap that looms over the ball park.

[johnnyboyokc]

it takes alot of cars to fill 4 levels....

[metro]

I hope the Hampton Inn is still on, the delayed groundbreaking was supposed to be 2 weeks ago and still nothing has happened.

[Steve]

It's still on. The latest news is the developer has run into a snag involving a utility that wasn't expected to be in the easement line. We've seen this before with Mike Henderson's Legacy at Arts Quarter and the Triangle group's Central Avenue Villas. It's all part of the fun we call downtown development.
-Steve