ROOM TO GROW
Construction has begun on a planned Renaissance Hotel in Bricktown
Site clearance started Tuesday for a long-planned, 10-story Renaissance Hotel along the gateway into Bricktown.
The 182-room hotel will be the district's first full-service hotel and will include a hotel, bar, valet parking and other amenities, according to Tulsa hotelier Andy Patel, who said he expects it to be open within 18 months.
“Once we finish demolition, we will be starting construction,” Patel said. “Utilities will be moved and all of the underground piers will be put in.”
The hotel has been in the works for the past five years since Pa tel bought the surface parking lot at the southeast corner of Oklahoma and Sheridan Avenues in 2014. He initially was going to build a Canopy by Hilton, but that flag was then locked up by another hotelier, Champ Pa tel( no relation) for a property east of the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.
Champ Patel's hotel was going to be one of three hotels but then plans were scrapped last year and the property was put up for sale.
In the meantime, Andy Patel secured the Renaissance flag
that currently is attached to a hotel built 20 years ago at Broadway and Sheridan by the late John Q. Hammons.
That hotel is set to be rebranded as it faces changes with loss of catering and bookings at the soon-to-be-replaced Cox Convention Center across the street.
Nine of 10 hotels in Bricktown have been built during the past decade, and at least four more still are planned, though are on hold.
Andy Patel, meanwhile, is set to open his first downtown Oklahoma City hotel later this year along E. K. Gaylord just south of t he new convention center.
The five-story ,133room Fairfield Inn is substantially complete, he said.
“We could have opened two to three months ago,” he said. “But we need to have access and there is so much construction going on.
“It's a little bit painful right now. But there is huge potential ahead.” Site clearance started Tuesday for a 10-story Renaissance Hotel to be built at the southeast corner of Sheridan and Oklahoma Avenues. [STEVE LACKMEYER/ THE OKLAHOMAN]
“We could have opened two to three months ago. But we need to have access and there is so much construction going on. It's a little bit painful right now. But there is huge potential ahead.”
Andy Patel