Convention center bids due in April
Staff Writer wcrum@oklahoman.com
Interest in Oklahoma City's new convention center is building as the city prepares to break ground on a project that will anchor redevelopment of downtown's blighted southern fringe.
"There's certainly a lot of buzz," architect Adam Paulitsch said Tuesday as he went over final designs for the nearly $300 million convention center with a MAPS 3 volunteer advisory committee.
The group voted unanimously to seek bids on construction. After the MAPS 3 Citizens Advisory Board and city council ratify the recommendation, the city will advertise for bids next Wednesday.
Bids will be due April 25. Paulitsch said his Kansas City-based team at Populous architecture and design estimates they are $685,000 under the city's $194 million construction budget.
Final designs reflect the building site between the central business district and the Oklahoma River, with prairie themes of red earth, fiery horizon and blue sky.
An upswept roofline and fields of west-facing glass are intended to draw the new downtown park and convention center together, erasing barriers between indoors and out.
The design for the complex at 500 S Robinson Ave. includes:
• A 200,000-squarefoot exhibit hall, bigger than three football fields.
• 45,000 square feet of high-tech meeting rooms on three levels.
• A 30,000-squarefoot ballroom, with balcony overlooking the park.
A headquarters hotel is being developed by Omni Hotels and Resorts across SW 4 Street from the convention center and is to include additional meeting rooms.
A skyway will link the convention center and a new parking garage to be built adjacent to the hotel. A second skyway over SW 4 could connect the convention center and hotel.
Extras to be added if bids are favorable include:
• Surface parking for 750 cars, at $3.5 million.
• Skyway linking hotel and convention center, at $2 million.
• SW 4 pedestrian plaza between hotel and convention center, $1.2 million.
Being built with proceeds of the 1-cent MAPS 3 sales tax approved by voters in 2009, the convention center will open debt-free.
Construction could begin in June and the building could be ready by mid-2020.
The convention center and associated development of the hotel, parking garage, downtown park and MAPS 3 streetcar represent a public investment of about $760 million.