Fairfield Inn

[Pete]

6/2/14:
A large hotel group out of Tulsa has purchased 5 SW 5th, a small warehouse to the east of the proposed upper Central Park. They paid $1.25 million for the .7 acres.

3/12/15:
http://www.okctalk.com/content/128-fairfield.html

As we were first to report in June of last year, a large hotel developer based in Tulsa bought a .7 acre lot and warehouse in the Core to Shore area east of the MAPS 3 Central Park.

The company had the property for sale for several months but recently filed an application to demolish the structure.

As a part of that filing, it was revealed the building would be replaced by a 5-story Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott.

Anish Hotels Group and its CEO Andy Patel have developed a number of hotels in the Tulsa area, including a planned Residence Inn downtown. Anish also recently announced plans to build a 9-story Canopy Hotel in Bricktown.

The news of this latest project comes as the MAPS 3 Convention Center Committee considers it's options after plans to acquire a parcel directly south of the Myriad Gardens fell through just last week.

One of the three sites the committee and paid consultants had identified as finalists was the “Core to Shore South” area, which is directly west of the proposed Fairfield Inn.

Although no other development has been announced for the area around the park other than law offices near the Oklahoma River, there has been a considerable number of property sales by a variety of investors and developers.

The Fairfield Inn would add to the fast-growing list of 21 hotels completed or planned for the downtown area. See our comprehensive Downtown Hotel Summary for much more information.

[soonerguru]

On first read, I thought it said Amish Hotel Group. Would the rooms in the new hotel be lighted by gas lanterns? Would the area shuttle be a 19th Century buggy? This would be an interesting stab at a convention center hotel.

[G.Walker]

Not going to get too excited, probably just going to be another 4 story, stucco/brick hotel, with a lot of parking spaces, like all their other hotels.

[NWOKCGuy]

Let's hope they're going to go for a little higher end than their existing brands.

[Pete]

They are getting ready to start on a Residence Inn in downtown Tulsa:

[PhiAlpha]

They are getting ready to start on a Residence Inn in downtown Tulsa:

If it looks anything like that, I would be pretty happy with it especially considering that it will be one of the first big private investments in the core to shore area.

[HangryHippo]

So the plan is then to clear the site of the warehouse building that's currently there?

[Pete]

So the plan is then to clear the site of the warehouse building that's currently there?

I would think so.

This group only does hotels and only new construction.

[soonerfan_in_okc]

If it looks anything like that, I would be pretty happy with it especially considering that it will be one of the first big private investments in the core to shore area.

exactly. Not much is down there so hopefully they can set the bar high for future investments in the area.

[betts]

Let's hope they're going to go for a little higher end than their existing brands.

That's for sure. PLEASE Oklahoma City don't sell this area short. This park should have the best of the best development adjacent. Don't Lower Bricktown my park!

[UnFrSaKn]

Hope this is promising for the International Harvester Building next door. I truly hope this isn't another casualty like the Film Exchange Building

[Urbanized]

I was thinking the same thing. Could be great news for the future of that building, or terrible. Remains to be seen. Also, the fact that those properties are in play definitely says something about the confidence in the currently-identified CC location.

[jn1780]

Not going to get too excited, probably just going to be another 4 story, stucco/brick hotel, with a lot of parking spaces, like all their other hotels.

Its only .7 acres unless their hoping to acquire more adjacent to it.

[Spartan]

Brickhugger?

I hope they retain the existing structure as a base.

[AP]

I drive by this every day and always think its such an eyesore. Can't wait to see something done with it. I really like the taller building to the west of it.

[dmoor82]

I would love to see a Lumber Yard type project in this area, either West or East of the new park South of the new Blvd., or is that just a pipe dream?

[Teo9969]

I was thinking the same thing. Could be great news for the future of that building, or terrible. Remains to be seen. Also, the fact that those properties are in play definitely says something about the confidence in the currently-identified CC location.

My exact thoughts

I would love to see a Lumber Yard type project in this area, either West or East of the new park South of the new Blvd., or is that just a pipe dream?

Considering the Lumber Yard is still a pipe dream at this point, I'd bet that that type of project is even more so here. Plus there's nowhere near the space for something on that scale. But it would be nice to see a 8 to 12 story hotel on this site, and I think that's a realistic dream. A realistic expectation is probably 4 to 8, with good urban principles. Let's just hope they exceed expectations rather than work against them.

[bombermwc]

It's a pretty tough spot to put a hotel, like Spartan said. The foot print is really small, but they're going to have a hard time buying up the rest of the block. OG&E has the surface lot because their large surface lot across the street gets full. Now if they can get that 4 story brick structure next door, maybe they'll have something (although it would be a shame to toss a multistory brick building down there...and one that doesn't seem to be in bad structural shape (can anyone confirm that?) with tight frontage too.

The stickler here is parking. Between the two building footprints, you could get something going...IF you have the parking lot too. Remember, this is OKC after all and not NYC, you can't build a hotel without somewhere to put the cars.

I'm not expecting this to be some bit major thing, but more like the cookie-cutter 4-6 floor suburban hotels. But I'm not really complaining either. It's the first private purchase we've seen to try and work off of C2S (which still has a long way to go). It COULD be the start of something here. I imagine once the park is done, we'll see a lot happen.

Something else to consider is, are they simply purchasing it in anticipation of the land being valued higher in another 10-15 years? They could just sit on it (or even raze the building and put in a surface lot [or grass] and collect event parking dollars). I'm hoping it turns into an actual building, but we should consider all the possibilities. Putting a cautiously optimistic about SOMETHING happening!

[UnFrSaKn]

The four story building next door is the International Harvester Building.

[Just the facts]

I really wish OKC would adopt development guidelines and exterior façade standards for Core to Shore - and do it quickly.

Haussmann's renovation of Paris - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

OKC needs to define the "OKC style" and make it mandatory in Core to Shore.

Also, I would bring a shovel and help them tear down the old 1 story structure, but if they try to do anything negative to the International Harvester Building I'll beat them in the head with the same shovel.

[Plutonic Panda]

It's a pretty tough spot to put a hotel, like Spartan said. The foot print is really small, but they're going to have a hard time buying up the rest of the block. OG&E has the surface lot because their large surface lot across the street gets full. Now if they can get that 4 story brick structure next door, maybe they'll have something (although it would be a shame to toss a multistory brick building down there...and one that doesn't seem to be in bad structural shape (can anyone confirm that?) with tight frontage too.

The stickler here is parking. Between the two building footprints, you could get something going...IF you have the parking lot too. Remember, this is OKC after all and not NYC, you can't build a hotel without somewhere to put the cars.

I'm not expecting this to be some bit major thing, but more like the cookie-cutter 4-6 floor suburban hotels. But I'm not really complaining either. It's the first private purchase we've seen to try and work off of C2S (which still has a long way to go). It COULD be the start of something here. I imagine once the park is done, we'll see a lot happen.

Something else to consider is, are they simply purchasing it in anticipation of the land being valued higher in another 10-15 years? They could just sit on it (or even raze the building and put in a surface lot [or grass] and collect event parking dollars). I'm hoping it turns into an actual building, but we should consider all the possibilities. Putting a cautiously optimistic about SOMETHING happening!

Well, if the site is small, that isn't a bad thing. That ultimately it be taller, right?

[Plutonic Panda]

I really wish OKC would adopt development guidelines and exterior façade standards for Core to Shore - and do it quickly.

Haussmann's renovation of Paris - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

OKC needs to define the "OKC style" and make it mandatory in Core to Shore.

Also, I would bring a shovel and help them tear down the old 1 story structure, but if they try to do anything negative to the International Harvester Building I'll beat them in the head with the same shovel.

*like*

[Swake]

Brickhugger?

I hope they retain the existing structure as a base.

No, not Brickhugger. Anish.

Brickhugger owns the downtown aLoft in the old city hall, along with the Mayo Hotel and is currently converting an old city office building into a Best Western. Anish Hotels owns the south Tulsa aLoft and is building a this new Residence Inn in the parking lot of the old YMCA, interestingly which is currently being converted to lofts by Brickhugger.

Anish apparently isn’t against preserving buildings either, they own the old Parker Drilling Building and are working on plans to convert it to a hotel.

[LakeEffect]

I really wish OKC would adopt development guidelines and exterior façade standards for Core to Shore - and do it quickly.

Haussmann's renovation of Paris - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

OKC needs to define the "OKC style" and make it mandatory in Core to Shore.

Also, I would bring a shovel and help them tear down the old 1 story structure, but if they try to do anything negative to the International Harvester Building I'll beat them in the head with the same shovel.

They have design guidelines and regulations in place...

http://www.okc.gov/planning/hp/distr...s/Downtown.pdf

DBD and DTD-2 base regulations apply depending on the location in Core to Shore.

[Just the facts]

They have design guidelines and regulations in place...

http://www.okc.gov/planning/hp/distr...s/Downtown.pdf

DBD and DTD-2 base regulations apply depending on the location in Core to Shore.

Not exactly what I had in mind. I meant more like the exterior MUST look like this (provide a visual example of 'this'), MUST be 3 to 5 stories, and MUST be built to the property line on all sides. The only real decision the developer will need to make is the interior layout and use.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussma...smann_building

The most famous and recognizable feature of Haussmann's renovation of Paris are the Haussmann apartment buildings which line the boulevards of Paris. Street blocks were designed as homogeneous architectural wholes. He treated buildings not as independent structures, but as pieces of a unified urban landscape.

Decide what the OKC style is going to be and build 200 sq. blocks of that.