Courtesy Tulsa CVB
Tulsa
Meanwhile, Tulsa’s downtown is also hopping and happening.
“We have a lot of development going on in downtown,” said Zach Fort, communications manager for Visit Tulsa. “Overall, downtown has become a more vibrant and lively place to be.”
Two hotels have opened downtown in the past several months. Aloft Tulsa Downtown opened in May about 300 feet from the 300,000-square-foot Tulsa Convention Center. The loft-inspired, Starwood-owned hotel has 180 guest rooms, 9,300 square feet of meeting space and is in the old city hall building, which was destined for demolition three years ago.
Developers kept many of the midcentury building’s original features and finished the property with modern fixtures and modish decor. (The Aloft Tulsa Downtown is not to be confused with the Aloft Tulsa in south Tulsa, which opened three years ago.)
The 104-room Fairfield Inn and Suites Tulsa Downtown opened in November one mile from the Tulsa Convention Center.
“The new hotel properties that have opened up in the downtown area have helped with our convention package,” Fort said.
About 1,300 of Tulsa’s 14,500 guest rooms are downtown and are considered part of the convention package.
The Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, housed in the historic converted Tulsa Union Depot, is also downtown and is available for receptions, dinners and meetings. The museum’s Great Performance Hall can accommodate about 500 people in theater-style seating.
The Brady Arts District on the north side of downtown is the fastest-growing of several entertainment districts and has launched its First Friday Art Crawl. “Little districts are popping up with nightlife and shopping” all over downtown, Fort said.
The Woody Guthrie Center also opened in late April in the arts district. The museum houses the singer-songwriter’s archives, which include sheet music, lyrics and guitars, and offers interactive exhibits and listening stations.
Over in the Deco District, restaurants and boutiques are popping up along the ground floors of Tulsa’s Art Deco skyscrapers, which were products of the area’s oil boom. The Blue Dome District on the east side of downtown, so named for the iconic blue-domed gas station on Route 66, is the hub of downtown nightlife with its bars, pubs and clubs.
800-558-3311
www.visittulsa.com
