BRICKTOWN BUILDING BLOCKS

AC Hotel to top off at five stories in less than two weeks

The AC Hotel is rising quickly in Bricktown, as promised, with dozens of prefabricated hotel rooms being lifted by a crane and placed atop a one-story steel base that will be the hotel’s ground floor.

The use of modular rooms built at an outof-state factory is new to Oklahoma City and will result in the 142room hotel topping out in about a week following the work starting last Friday. The rooms are fully furnished with desks, lamps, beds, bathrooms, air conditioners and even art on the walls.

The AC Hotel at 411 E Sheridan Ave. and an adjoining 134-room Hyatt Place at 20 Russell Perry Ave. are being developed by NewcrestImage Hotels and are set to open next year.

Construction of the modules started in June at Guerdon Modular Buildings in Boise, Idaho. The Hyatt Place, meanwhile, is being built using traditional methods.

When the two hotels open next year, they will be a part of a dramatic transformation of east Bricktown that includes the 4,000-person Criterion concert venue, which opened in March, a Springhill Suites, and the Steelyard, a mix of 400 apartments and 26,000 square feet of retail.

The development is being built on the site of the former, sprawling Stewart Metal Fabricators plant that stood on both sides of Sheridan Avenue between Joe Carter Avenue and Lincoln Boulevard.

[PHOTOS BY JIM BECKEL, THE OKLAHOMAN] The downtown skyline is seen from atop the future AC Hotel being built in east Bricktown.

A prefabricated hotel room is lifted off of a trailer to be stacked at the AC Hotel being built in east Bricktown.

Several prefabricated hotel rooms were stacked up at the future AC Hotel over the past few days.

The AC Hotel construction site is changing rapidly this week as prefabricated rooms are being stacked in place.