Omni Hotel

[Pete]

[Pete]

I moved a bunch of posts about the OG&E building to this thread:

http://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=44229

[Pete]

[shawnw]

I thought there was a basement level? Doesn't seem like it goes down far enough for that...

(I meant for this to be on the conv center thread)

[jn1780]

I noticed one of the Tower Cranes had a lit Omni Hotel sign. Seems like an expensive form of advertising unless they plan to reuse it on the actual building somewhere.

[ChrisHayes]

Will the hotel be lit up in LEDs like the one in Dallas?

[mugofbeer]

I thought there was a basement level? Doesn't seem like it goes down far enough for that...

(I meant for this to be on the conv center thread)

There may be problems with basement levels and the water table. You're getting very close to the river.

[Laramie]

Will the hotel be lit up in LEDs like the one in Dallas?

Omni Hotel & Resort, Frisco, TX - 16 Floors, 300 rooms: Year built 2017. Half the total room count and one floor less than the proposed OKC Omni.

Quick Specs: Guest Rooms 300
Meeting Rooms 16
Total Meeting Capacity 1,440
Wi-fi Yes - Total Meeting Sq. Ft. 24,000

This pic may be a version of what you will see in OKC.

[KayneMo]

There may be problems with basement levels and the water table. You're getting very close to the river.

The Omni will have a basement level.

[DallasOkie086]

Omni Hotel & Resort, Frisco, TX - 16 Floors, 300 rooms: Year built 2017. Half the total room count and one floor less than the proposed OKC Omni.

Quick Specs: Guest Rooms 300
Meeting Rooms 16
Total Meeting Capacity 1,440
Wi-fi Yes - Total Meeting Sq. Ft. 24,000

This pic may be a version of what you will see in OKC.

They are building an Omni for the PGA close to the size of the OKC one only 3 miles north of the Dallas Star Omni. My suspicion is that the new one will look very similar to OKC's Omni.

https://www.omnihotels.com/media-cen...ls-partnership

600 acres: Total campus

540 acres: Space for golf courses

$520 million: Estimated cost of total project

$163.8 million: Minimum potential state and local incentives

100,000 square feet: PGA of America headquarters

$30 million: Minimum cost of headquarters

127,000 square feet: Conference center owned by the city

500 rooms: Omni resort owned by Omni and investors

40,000 square feet: Retail space

35,000 square feet: Clubhouse

100: Minimum number of workers in new headquarters

2: 18-hole championship golf courses, open to the public, owned by the city

1: 9-hole course, open to the public, owned by the city

2022: Tentative opening date

[Pete]

[warreng88]

I can't seem to find the renderings, so pardon my ignorance: is the east/west street, SW 4th, staying open to the public or since it will be between the Omni/Parking garage and the convention center, will it be closed off only to be used for utilities, trash, etc?

[Pete]

The east half of SW 4th will be an open street (parking garage/mixed use project on the north, Fairfield Inn on the south) but the west portion will be pedestrians only (Omni on the north, convention center on the south).

Broadway between the Omni and garage will stay open.

[Pete]

The Omni is setting up a sales office in the old used car sales building on the REHCO land nearby the hotel construction site.

Will include 2 model guest rooms, sales offices, etc. Work has already commenced.

[Zuplar]

I'm curious cause I'm not very familiar with all this, but what is the purpose in doing this? I'm assuming this is temporary?

[Pete]

I'm curious cause I'm not very familiar with all this, but what is the purpose in doing this? I'm assuming this is temporary?

Yes, temporary.

It's a common practice when a larger hotel is under construction. Aloft had a similar office across the street from its Deep Deuce location before they opened.

It's so they can book events in advance of opening. They basically staff up and use the temp facility to bring in clients, show them the rooms and renderings of the meeting facilties, and get them to sign on the line which is dotted.

[Pete]

[Pete]

Omni hotel to open sales office; confirms key restaurant tenant and other details

The city’s future convention center hotel will open in 2021, but officials have already hit the ground running. BY MIGUEL RIOS




Oklahoma City and Omni Hotels & Resorts negotiated the convention hotel deal in 2017, though plans for the hotel stem back to 2008. Now the full-service, four-star hotel is just two years away.

Omni Oklahoma City Hotel is currently under construction at 100 W. Oklahoma City Boulevard, between SW Fourth and SW Seventh streets and S. Robinson Avenue and S. Shield Boulevard. The 17-story hotel will stand across the street from the future MAPS 3 convention center and the 70-acre Scissortail Park as well as caddy-corner to a streetcar stop.

The hotel is a $241 million investment and part of a public-private partnership with the city. Omni will pay for $157.5 million and hotel officials have asked the city to pay $85.4 million. Oklahoma City Council approved the deal during a 2017 council meeting to help support the convention center.

“Our partnership with Omni will support our investment in the MAPS 3 Convention Center and position it to become a resounding success,” said former city manager Jim Couch during the 2017 meeting. “Having a top-quality, full-service hotel next door to the convention center will maximize Oklahoma City’s return on an important investment in the increasingly competitive convention business. This is good for Oklahoma City and good for Oklahoma.”


Selling point

Omni officials are in the process of setting up a temporary sales office in an old building near the hotel construction site. The office will have two model guest rooms and house the Omni Oklahoma City sales and hotel staff.




“It’s a selling tool for us. We’ll have actual guest rooms built out,” said Mark Wykes, director of sales and marketing for Omni in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. “It’ll be a king room and a double double room. The design will be exact so we can show people firsthand what our guest rooms will look like in the hotel.”

The sales, construction and design teams for Omni Oklahoma City are expected to move into the sales office mid-February. They will work from the building and move into the hotel once construction is finished.




Dan Boyer was recently hired to be the director of sales and marketing for the Omni Oklahoma City Hotel. Boyer, who has held the same position in the past with Sheraton Grand, Marriott International and Renaissance Hotels, will manage, develop and implement strategies to drive more revenue for the convention center and hotel.

Boyer is already in Oklahoma City working to kick-start the hotel’s initiatives by interviewing sales candidates and creating business strategies. He and the sales team will work with the Oklahoma City Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) to help sell prospective clients on the hotel while it is under construction and once its complete.

“It takes a joint effort between a lot of different partners, and the CVB is a key one,” Wykes said. “Their job is to go out and uncover group opportunities, association meetings and corporate meetings and get them to come to Oklahoma City.”

CVB will help sell the hotel specifically to businesses and conventions. The CVB staff researches and spends time in cities like Chicago and New York, where major associations are headquartered and use the information to book hotels around the city, said CVB president Michael Carrier.

“The Omni specifically, because that’s the convention center hotel, would typically be the first hotel on the list that people would consider because of their proximity to the convention center,” he said.

There have been some letters of agreements signed for businesses booking the hotel, but Carrier said that information will not be released until contracts are signed and finalized. There are currently no individual reservations.

The Omni sales staff will be in charge of booking the hotel for social events like weddings, banquets and family reunions.

“There’s a lot of different markets that hotels serve; that’s why Omni will have their own sales office that will have a number of different people in it booking a variety of different types of activities in the hotel,” Carrier said.

CVB and the Omni sales staff will also work with the convention center’s sales office, which will be managed by SMG, a worldwide entertainment and convention management company that also manages Cox Convention Center.


Hotel amenities

The 605-room hotel will include 29 suites and feature regional design that will reflect Oklahoma and set it apart from other Omni hotels around the nation, Wykes said.





“We’ll pay homage to the heritage and the modern progress of the city,” he said. “It’ll take inspiration from the city surroundings and from the landscape of the Oklahoma terrain. It’ll bring some of those colors and touches of elegant tradition paired with a sophisticated mix of contemporary and approachable comfort.”

Design characteristics will include a sky-blue color palette, abstract wheat patterns and chevron patterns inspired by Scissortail Park, according to an Omni press release.

A number of rooms will be also be designed to cater to professional basketball players, featuring larger doorframes, longer beds, higher ceilings and taller showerheads. Preliminary talks have an entire floor dedicated to these rooms, though Wykes said that has not been finalized.

The 78,000 square feet of event space will mainly be housed on the second floor. The third floor will have an outdoor event lawn next to a pool deck overlooking Scissortail Park.

Seven food and beverage options will be available throughout the hotel, including an all-day dining restaurant, a coffee shop, a pool bar and grill and a two-level entertainment and sports bar. Some restaurants will line Robinson Avenue with outdoor patio seating and street entrances. The hotel will also feature a full-service spa with treatment rooms and a relaxation area, a modern fitness center and a retail shop.

“The Omni is going to be, in many ways, a resort hotel for folks that are looking for a nice weekend getaway,” Carrier said. “During spring, summer and fall, I can see people coming from other parts of the state, or even out of the state, for a getaway weekend in Oklahoma City and going to the art museum or a baseball game or other things around the area, with the Omni being their hotel of choice because of the different amenities.”

Boyer said he’s excited to be involved with the expansion and economic revitalization of downtown OKC.




“For this hotel to be one of the focal points of what’s going on [in Oklahoma City] is pretty exciting for Omni as a company,” he said. “That was the attraction for me, getting to be part of this growth of downtown Oklahoma City.”

Construction is well underway with an underground parking garage rapidly taking shape. The hotel will also lease hundreds of spaces from the city in a garage to the east which will commence this summer.


Bob's Steak & Chop House

Carrier also confirmed that Bob's Steak & Chop House will open in the Omni in space along Robinson facing Scissortail Park. There will also be a large sports bar in the highly visible corner spot at the intersection of Robinson and the Oklahoma City Boulevard and directly across from Chesapeake Arena.




Bob's is headquartered in Dallas and currently operates 15 locations in 8 Omni hotels:: Amelia Island, Nashville, Fort Worth, Carlsbad, Dallas, Louisville, New York, Tuscon.

The restaurant chain enjoys and strong reputation for large quality cuts of meat, an elegant atmosphere, big drinks and fine wines.




The city had originally proposed a skywalk directly connecting the hotel to the convention center, but Omni lobbied against it, wanting as much foot traffic as possible along Robinson.

A coffee shop is planned to take the space directly south of Bob's, providing three eating and drinking establishments facing Robinson and the park to the west.


Construction on Oklahoma City Convention Center broke ground in June and is scheduled to open in 2020. Omni Oklahoma City Hotel is set to open in early to mid 2021. Scissortail Park and OKC Boulevard will be complete later this year.

[_Cramer_]

I saw this announcement a few weeks back! Very excited to have the PGA in a city as close as Dallas (Frisco).

[soonerguru]

This city will be transformed. Exciting times.

[dankrutka]

Are there any good comparisons in other cities for this much development this quick that is this close to downtown recently?

[Pete]

^

They only comparison would be the first MAPS, with the arena, ballpark and canal.

But in terms of total dollars, the Devon complex alone was $750MM.

[jonny d]

I wonder if there is an expansion agreement in place? Say this is a huge hit. What is larger conferences want to start coming to OKC. Can OKC have Omni add to their hotel, or would the conferences have to use surrounding hotels?

[Anonymous.]

I wonder if there is an expansion agreement in place? Say this is a huge hit. What is larger conferences want to start coming to OKC. Can OKC have Omni add to their hotel, or would the conferences have to use surrounding hotels?

We probably won't ever know because the [large] convention planners will automatically filter out OKC based on this very fact. I am sure room accommodation deals and event space are the very top of the list in terms of selecting a city for a convention. The Omni choosing to not build more rooms basically places the convention capacity in a certain tier.

[Pete]

The city owns all the property to the south and east of the convention center (there is a large parking lot to the south for future exansion of the center but even more property south of that).

If there was a longer-term need, more immediately adjacent rooms could be built.