March 29– Mar. 29–ENID, Okla. — Enid will have to wait at least three more months for its downtown hotel.
The Best Western GLo hotel, which was expected to open in a May to July timeframe, is now estimated to be unveiled in October, Enid City Manager Jerald Gilbert said.
"That's what we're tracking now," Gilbert said after doing a construction walk-through on Friday.
Gilbert cited weather delays causing subcontractor issues and steel needing to be reordered for the roof for the GLo architectural design feature.
"Please make it stop raining," said Jack Kennell, construction superintendent on the project. "That is my biggest culprit. Once a week, the lot turns to mud. I'm desperately trying to get the parking lot in."
Being built on Maine between Independence and Grand, the GLo hotel will have 96 rooms and four floors when construction is completed.
"Most of the subs are out of town, and they have to come from Oklahoma City," Kennell said. "And if it rains, they're not coming.
"The biggest thing with my steel is I can't put my roof on until I get my steel up. Inside the building, you can't finish the electrical, you can't finish the drywall. It stops a lot inside the building."
Kennell said the signature architectural piece will highlight the downtown structure.
"It is a blue piece of metal that has lights shining on it that makes it glow," Kennell said of the showcase feature. "That's how they get the name GLo.
"There's a tower on the right-hand side of the front doors that protrudes out of the building That is part of the GLo. It carries 160 feet across the roof."
The city of Enid has pursued a downtown hotel since 2011, when developer LodgeWell LLC was selected. That first developer was unsuccessful in attaining financing for the project.
Then, Peachtree Hotel Group II LLC was selected. Around December 2015, when the price of oil dropped, the developer started getting nervous about the Enid market and the project stalled again.
Finally, the city began working with Aston Management in June 2016. Enid Economic Development Authority entered into a master development agreement on Feb. 23, 2017, with the hotel developer, ENIDBWP LLC — which is Aston Management and Dr. Atul Patel — for the construction of a Best Western GLo hotel. Patel previously has built a couple of hotels in Enid and others in Chickasha and in Oklahoma City.
As a rule of thumb, Gilbert said construction takes an estimated six months after the roof is installed.
"You still get 30 days of putting all the stuff together, furnishings, etc.," Kennell said.
Construction on the GLo hotel began in the summer of 2018 in downtown Enid, with the opening date dependent on weather delays and getting construction crews coordinated.
"Really, that's it," Gilbert said Friday. "It's nothing to be alarmed about. Construction projects sometime take longer than you anticipate for various reasons.
"The good news it's still going to be open in downtown Enid."
