Construction Set To Begin On Downtown Tulsa High-Rise Hotel

Executives and dignitaries have broken ground for a new high-rise hotel in downtown Tulsa, right across from the BOK Center.

The plan is for a 125-room, nine-story Hampton Inn at Third and Cheyenne and It is the first high-rise hotel built from the ground up in Tulsa in 30 years.

""There would be no demand for this hotel if people weren't here to visit the BOK, the convention center," Promise Hotels developer Pete Patel said.

The Hampton will join a flurry of new hotels just opening or planned, and it's still not enough to meet demand, according to the Chamber of Commerce. It says there are still conventions being turned away because of lack of hotel accommodations. They don’t believe that problem will last much longer, though.

The Hampton Inn contractor says he will start work on Friday, just a day after the ground-breaking ceremony. He hopes to have the facility running in time for the spring convention season.

"You've got an office building and a hotel here, you'll have restaurants and retail all around it," Tulsa Regional Chamber's Mike Neal said. "You'll have residential all around it and it's going to be a great, mixed-use development. It makes so much sense."

The development team of Promise Hotels and the Ross Group say it's a $17.3 million dollar project, with 86,000-square feet to be developed. And it's all on land that was a parking lot and dilapidated apartments before BOK Center came along.

"This wasn't in anybody's imagination and here we are, another new hotel being built next to the BOK Center, in the heart of the downtown area," Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett said.