Fairfield Inn

[shawnw]

Those guys had some foresight. Give them more projects.

[HOT ROD]

Glass half full - Pete. I like it.

[Pete]

Glass half full - Pete. I like it.

It's going to be amazing to watch that area develop very rapidly in the next 24 months.

OKC has never seen anything like it and it's on a huge scale.


I've had my issues with many of the dealings regarding the convention center but am very glad it landed where it did and now we can watch that whole area come to life in a pretty short period of time.

[David]

It's pretty impressive how ahead of the curve these guys are. This is exactly the sort of thing we need by the new convention center for its best success, and they're in there building it before the ground was even broken on any other surrounding project.

[Pete]

[Pete]

[shawnw]

Missed opportunity not going higher by even just a 3-5 floors.

[Pete]

Missed opportunity not going higher by even just a 3-5 floors.

I'm sure for franchising and financing there are reasons virtually all these hotels are 4-5 stories and in the 100-130 room range.

Even developments with multiple hotels just build more properties within these parameters rather than build one or two that are larger.

[shawnw]

Agree. But just being able to see the Fairfield name from Bricktown over the tracks has value that should have been calculated in.

[catch22]

Agree. But just being able to see the Fairfield name from Bricktown over the tracks has value that should have been calculated in.

I’m not sure it really matters that much as most people book hotels from either a map or proximity to attractions.

[baralheia]

And honestly, even at 5 stories like it is here, this building feels super impressive to dive south on Shields, creating an urban canyon where there previously was none - and adding in the garage/residential project at the Shields/Boulevard corner, it will be even more impressive. I hope to see more projects like this continue down Shields!

[shawnw]

Definitely not unappreciative of its existence.

Regarding booking, I get that, but just from a sheer brand awareness. As in, oh dang, look, they have a Fairfield downtown, let's try that one on our next trip!

I'm not saying it's a tremendous value, but the value isn't zero.

[Pete]

I wonder how many hotels have been recently built in the OKC area that are in the 4-6 floor range?

I bet over the last decade we are close to 100. And I'm sure there are specific reasons for them all falling into this narrow range.

[TheTravellers]

I wonder how many hotels have been recently built in the OKC area that are in the 4-6 floor range?

I bet over the last decade we are close to 100. And I'm sure there are specific reasons for them all falling into this narrow range.

I thought I had heard somewhere that that height is about as high as wood-frame construction can go (not sure why, haven't researched it), so any higher would have to be steel and would cost more. Could be completely wrong, but that somehow stuck in my head...

[kevin lee]

If I'm remembering correctly, wood framed construction can be no taller than 85'.

[Pete]

If I'm remembering correctly, wood framed construction can be no taller than 85'.

Right, that's from the International Building Code.

[BG918]

If I'm remembering correctly, wood framed construction can be no taller than 85'.

This isn't wood-frame though, it's load-bearing steel studs with metal decking/concrete topping slabs. The shear walls are the CMU cores. These can easily go up to 15 stories with a concrete podium (this one appeared to have a structural steel podium to support the second floor deck).

[Urbanized]

^^^^^^
Just because you build something with more floors/rooms doesn't mean it will fill up.

Hotels are built to pro formas which include performance metrics such as flag, associated reservation system, location, expected rates they might be able to bring, etc.. Or more properly I should have said hotels are FINANCED based on these metrics. There were likely very clear indicators showing how many bookings this property could expect with this flag, at this rate, and so on.

There are also economies of scale related to staffing, etc., such as breaking points for maintenance staff, housekeeping, front desk, etc.. Everything is according to formula, with little or no guesswork involved. So, the number of stories/rooms conformed to the formula, and it allowed the developer to secure financing, and I'm sure going outside of that formula would have not only been incredibly risky but would have killed the project's financing.

[shawnw]

You would know better than nearly anyone, so not disputing...

...but also there was such a hard push for 600-750 rooms for the Omni. That didn't seem particularly formulaic aside from "because room blocks". I know it's a different situation. I feel like this hotel could have been a different situation as well, given the proximity to the CC and Park and such.

[Urbanized]

Yes, Omni was very specifically about room blocks. If you were to build the Omni without public participation, the formula would probably tell you that you could expect around 150-250 rooms to be booked organically each night at market rate. The additional rooms are only possible because quite often they will be booked at a loss (on paper) to incentivize meetings.

The Omni was actually very formulaic, because they simply added expected profitable organic bookings for that flag, PLUS excess likely UNprofitable rooms equal to standard meeting room blocks.

This hotel has no such public participation, nor should it. It’s being built to satisfy organic market demand.

[AlvarezK]

Exactly

[Pete]

[Pete]

[PaddyShack]

Do they plan on opening as soon as construction is complete? Even though the Omni and CC will still be going up.

[Pete]

Do they plan on opening as soon as construction is complete? Even though the Omni and CC will still be going up.

Yes. They actually have their own parking lot (or soon will) directly west.