OKC City Council Approves Luxury Hotel Plan

It looks like Oklahoma City taxpayers will be footing about a third of the cost of a luxury hotel to go with the new convention center downtown. On Tuesday, City Council gave leaders the green light to negotiate details.

It was down to Marriott and Omni. The city's selection committee met with both developers last week, and the unanimous choice was Omni.

Here are highlights of the Omni proposal.

• The hotel would have 600 rooms and slightly more than 50,000 sq. ft. of ballroom and meeting space.
• There would be 16,000 sq. ft. of restaurant space, accommodating six different restaurants.
• Total cost is expected to be $235.5 million with Omni asking the city contribute $85 million of that, slightly more than a third. By way of comparison, the Marriott developers were asking for $105 million, 42 percent of their total cost of $248 million.
• The convention center itself -- one of the MAPS 3 projects -- is budgeted at $288 million.

Construction is expected to begin next year, with the goal of a 2020 opening. So now the city manager and head of the Urban Renewal Authority will sit down with the Omni hotel people and try to work out all the specifics, which will include exactly how the city would fund its portion of the construction cost, maybe through existing hotel taxes, or perhaps increases in those taxes.

They expect to be back before council with a final development and funding plan in November.