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"Downtown to boost hotel space

By Tricia Pemberton
The Oklahoman

If all goes as planned, Oklahoma City may have almost 600 new downtown hotel rooms by the time the Big 12 basketball tournament comes to town in 2007.

Planned downtown hotels to meet variety of needs

Renovation work on the 108-room Colcord is under way. Work at the 225-room Hilton Skirvin should start in August.

John Q. Hammons is seeking final approval from Oklahoma City's Urban Renewal Authority for a 150-room Marriott Residence Inn in Bricktown.

Hammons also promises a downtown Embassy Suites in the future.

A 150- to 200-room Hampton Inn is about 90 percent assured by Bricktown developer Marsh Pittman. And a 20-room bed-and-breakfast is envisioned by canal-side property owner Chris Johnson.

"Our downtown hotel inventory is just critical to attracting convention and tourism business," said Steve Collier, executive director of the Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Collier said 931 rooms are downtown. If all projects on the table go forward, the city would land between 1,500 to 1,700 rooms, and that would adequately match the city's meeting space.

"We'd feel really good about that," Collier said.

"And the quality of rooms is an exciting thing. We're going to have some very high quality to go along with the upscale convention hotels we already have."

JoeVan Bullard, director of Oklahoma City's Urban Renewal Authority, said more hotel rooms would allow Oklahoma City to become a strong Tier 2 city.

Check out okctalk.com - You might like to check out some local discussions regarding downtown OK and new developments.