Enid City Commission approved plans for a downtown hotel during a special meeting Tuesday.
Preliminary plans and specifications were unanimously approved, with Mayor Bill Shewey and Ward 3 Commissioner Ben Ezzell absent from Tuesday’s meeting. The city had entered into a master development agreement with ENIDBWP LLC in February. ENIDBWP LLC is Aston Management and Dr. Atul Patel. Through the agreement approved in February, a Best Western GLō hotel will be constructed on property located on Maine, between Independence and Grand, near Central National Bank Center.
“The approval is one step closer to the construction of a Best Western GLō hotel in downtown Enid adjacent to the Central National Bank Center,” Shewey said in a press release.
“So far they’ve been very responsive to us, they’ve met with us in person and through GoToMeetings on multiple occasions,” Whitney Hall said during the meeting on behalf of the Main Street Design Committee. “We would like to voice our support for the acceptance of the hotel as designed.”
She said the preliminary plans had been unanimously approved by the design committee at its last meeting.
Approval of the designs also was voiced by Main Street Enid Director Kelly Tompkins.
“We are so excited. There are people on our design committee that were founders of Main Street Enid in 1994, and they’ve been waiting decades for this to happen,” Tompkins said.
Enid Regional Development Alliance Associate Director Lisa Powell agreed with what the design committee said, noting they have been meeting expectations as well as incorporating input from city commissioners for the hotel.
“We are closer to realizing the vision of a downtown hotel,” City Manager Jerald Gilbert said in a press release. “This milestone has been accomplished through the joint effort with the Enid Regional Development Alliance, the developer and the city of Enid.”
The process toward a downtown hotel began in March 2011, and LodgeWell LLC was selected as the developer. Financing for the project was never attained.
After that contract expired, 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, said Brent Kisling, Enid Regional Development Alliance director.
In June 2016, Enid began working with Aston Management, owned by Patel. Patel went to grade school in Enid, grew up in the area and owns SpringHill Suites in Enid.
Story provided by: Enid News & Eagle
Written by: Ryan Miller
