Really interested in where that info comes from. I talk to Bricktown hotel and industry people on a daily basis and they are constantly remarking how strong demand is downtown. The softening right now is at the edges - of the city, not downtown. There definitely is some concern for what the influx is doing to prices for downtown and for the entire industry - new hotels need for rates to stay above a certain level to remain profitable, even when full - but there has been little if any talk about vacancy issues in the core.

Also, the newer hotel properties will get a major shot in the arm with the opening of the convention center, which is surely something developers are banking on.

The reality is that we don't have an overbuilt problem in OKC so much as we have an under-demolished problem (to borrow a phrase from the late John Q Hammons). Many of the older, jankier (and unfortunately larger) properties around town are completely paid for and can profitably keep their doors open with minimal staff and leasing rooms at a depressed rate that puts downward rate pressure on new hotels, forcing them to compete at rates which are marginally profitable or worse. This is yet another consequence of bad land use policy over the decades, which keep land values and property taxes so low that owners have little incentive to redevelop spent properties.

Would be interested to hear Pryor Tiger's take on vacancy in Bricktown. He's involved with the imminent opening of two properties in the district and just moved over to them from another new-ish one that for some time was the top performing Holiday Inn Express in the country.