Omni seeks a vibrant street with its new Oklahoma City hotel
Rare is the moment when a heavily recruited economic development prospect signs on to terms with the city and then saves taxpayers $1 million in a move that goes against the wishes of those at the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber and the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
That, however, is exactly what has transpired over the past several weeks leading up to the groundbreaking Monday for the 17-story, 605-room hotel that is being built adjacent to the future convention center.
The project is still a record-setting public-private development with the city providing $85.4 million in assistance along with the $157.5 million being invested by Omni to make the $241 million convention hotel a reality.
When the convention center opens in late 2020 and the hotel opens in early 2021, the combination of the two will be vastly different from the enclosed box design of the Cox Convention Center and surrounding hotels like the Sheraton and Renaissance.
The first and second floors will feature restaurants and bars with inside and outside dining all facing either Robinson Avenue or the Oklahoma City Boulevard. The offerings will include a Bob’s Steak and Chop House, a lobby bar, a sports bar, an all-day restaurant with to-go offerings, a coffee shop, a walk-up burger bar and a poolside bar and grill.
Debate over the skywalk emerged last winter with Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau president Mike Carrier arguing the skywalk was critical in doing deals with meeting planners. Omni executives, have faced similar suggestions in Nashville and elsewhere.
In Nashville, plans for a skywalk were scrapped, though a bay window was placed where the connection was to take place to allow for construction of a bridge if needed at a future
date. Expect similar changes with the elimination of the skywalk in Oklahoma City.
Skywalks, once common with urban development, have ended up in disfavor with planners though recent examples in downtown Oklahoma City include the skywalks built with the BOK Park
Plaza Tower at 499 W Sheridan.
Typically, it’s the developers who still fight for such crossings even though they are proven to sap vibrancy from streets below. In this case, Omni, one of the most respected names in the convention hotel industry, is clearly on the side of taking a chance and doing whatever is possible to have as many people being a part of the street life outside as they are in the shiny new tower.