10-story Hampton Inn proposed for Bricktown

Thanks for the info Steve. Keep up the good work. Any chance on an article about Rick Dowell and all his properties and prying to see if he will ever do anything major with any of them??

Good news! I drove by a few minutes ago and noticed fencing all the way up around the site, and bull dozers were out there and had the entire parking surface dug up. I was curious as last week they were starting to fence it off and do some water line work in the area. Hopefully they're good to go now!! I took pictures and will post them soon.

That is GOOD GOODS news! Thanks, Metro~!

__________________
Doug
http://www.dougloudenback.com/downtownOKC.htm
http://www.dougloudenback.com/oklahomacity.htm
http://dougdawg.blogspot.com/

No problem. I took pics last Friday and posted them in my gallery for those interested to see the dirt moving.......

They got some construction signs up last week, you know the big ones with a full blown photo rendering of the project. They also have some heavy machinery finally out there and look to be doing the start of foundation work. I drove by and took pics and will post soon.

Walked by with some friends the other night and they were shocked that a hotel could fit there. Silly suburbanites...

yeah that is funny.

Suburbanites kill me with their "lack of urban knowledge" in downtown.

__________________
Oklahoma City, RENAISSANCE CITY!

I still wish we could get the glass tower as part of the Hampton Inn....

I agree, John. I would even lose a floor or two of brick to make that happen. It would distinguish the building so much more.

The sad part is that is was one more floor of brick that the Bricktown Design Committee demanded that caused the tower to be eliminated from the design. Not a good trade if you ask me.

I agree. It was a silly trade off. On the one hand the renderings looked much better with the tower and gave it more of a unique feel. On the other, I don't see how one floor of brick equaled the entire tower. I think HI used the committee's demands to cut costs even further, but made it look like the commitee pressured them into it. I could be wrong though. Maybe 1 floor of brick does cost the same as the tower entrance, but it seems like a silly trade off to me.

It's not like it will match that piece of garbage to the west anyway. Less brick would actually match its immediate neighbor better. But i guess it's done. One more compromise that we need to overlook and keep repeating "at least it's better than 10 years ago..."

Even the new Courtyard by Quail Springs is going to have towers.

Yeah, but how much brick does it have.

None, which qualifies it for Two Towers.

Looks like they've got the main elevator shaft up to 3-4 floors now. Most of the underground work appears to be done and we should start seeing things go vertical here in the next few weeks.

Does anyone know when they hope to open for business?

I'd guess they are still 6 months out, but they are moving right along, so who knows.

I'll try to take some pics this weekend. It is moving along nicely. The elevator shafts look complete (all 9 floors). And the steelwork looks like it is moving along nicely about 5 floors up. Can't wait to see this welcome addition to the Bricktown skyline as well as boost downtown's hotel room #'s. Hopefully it will also create some nice foot traffic in east Bricktown on nights it is usually dead.

Well my back went out on me bigtime this weekend. As soon as I get over this, I'll get out and take some pics.

Drove by again today and here are the pics. It's supposed to open this summer. For those of you not familiar with this, it's between the Bricktown parking garage and the old Mango's club on Sheridan. Crabtown is across the street and the ballpark directly behind it. Those will be some nice views from the south rooms!

It looks much shorter than I originally thought. How much higher will it be over the parking garage? Will the hotel be visible from I-40?

But at least this hotel is truly urban, with a small footprint in a tight space. It's not like Hogan's suburban hotel on the canal. I think it's about the same height as the parking garage from what I could tell when I took the pics. Yes, it will be visible for the indefinite future from the current I-40. The ballpark is behind it and this is much taller than the outfield walls, although unless they have a sign on the south side of the hotel, then drivers might not know exactly what the building is for.

You can see it from 235 and 40, for the time being. I don't think you'll be able to see anything from the new I-40.

While I would have liked to see something more ambitious, too, (along with the tower feature they took out to get a floor of brick on it), the best part about it is that it completely obstruct the east side of the parking garage. That thing is nasty.

I'm sure there will be signs identifying it as a Hampton on all sides.

exept the west side, which is butted against the parking garage