City, chamber to finalize developer for new downtown Tulsa convention hotel next month

Tulsa Regional Tourism will soon decide which developer will build a new downtown hotel, connected to the Arvest Convention Center.

Q: Where is Tulsa Regional Tourism in the search for a developer?

A: The search is down to three developers; they are located in Dallas, Atlanta and Houston. But the city said the developer’s plans must include using local firms to boost work for people right here in Tulsa.

Q: What will the hotel look like?

A: Tulsa Regional Tourism released a rendering showing what a 650-room hotel would look like connected to the convention center.

This is not a final design and is just to give people an idea of what a hotel this size would look like downtown.

For comparison, there are just under 500 rooms at the River Spirit and Hard Rock hotels and casinos.

Image Provided By: Nunzio Marc DeSantis Architects, Dallas, Texas

Image Provided By: Nunzio Marc DeSantis Architects, Dallas, Texas

Q: When will a decision be made?

A: Those three developers will present their plans to a selection committee in about two weeks, then that committee of five people will decide on a developer by the end of August.

Q: What is the committee looking for?

A: Tulsa Regional Tourism President Renee McKenney said right now, Tulsa can offer great large spaces for events, but is lacking smaller spaces for groups to have "break out" meetings, so the new hotel needs to address that.

"We started looking at why we're losing the business. And it's because these groups are requiring these 50-100 room meeting space that we can't accommodate. So the attached convention center hotel would accommodate that,” she said. “But it also has those networking opportunities like a coffee shop, like a bar, and a restaurant and places where people can meet and be right there by the convention center."

Q: What does the city say about the need for a convention hotel?

A: Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols said in part in a statement, “This Downtown Convention Center Hotel is a strategic investment in Tulsa’s future. With the continued success of the BOK Center and the rapid growth of our Downtown core, Tulsa is reaching a tipping point. We simply don’t have enough hotel rooms, especially full-service options connected to the convention center.”

The City of Tulsa's Economic Development Officer Erran Persley said in a statement, "... our new Convention Center Hotel will make Tulsa more competitive in attracting conventions to our city. Currently, we are below average in terms of the number of rooms available for cities of our size."

Q: When is the hotel expected to open?

A: If all goes as planned, the chamber said the hotel should open in 2029, with a goal to have rooms already booked the day it opens.

Q: How is the hotel being paid for?

A: The chamber said the hotel will not increase taxes for Tulsa residents.

The chamber said it will be paid for based on the same model that Oklahoma City used to bring OMNI hotel downtown, with a combination of a lodging tax, state leverage tax, and the developer putting money into the project.