Omni Hotels opens its downtown Fort Worth hotel

Keeping to its cowboys and culture theme of the hotel, Irving-based Omni Hotels opened its long-awaited Omni Fort Worth Monday by shooting bronze and gold glitter into the crowd when the ribbon to the front doors was cut and employees handed out cowboy hats to attendees.

Robert Rowling, chairman of TRT Holdings, Omni Hotel’s parent, called the hotel spectacular.

“I promise you we will not disappoint you,” Rowling said. “This will be a landmark..”

The 614-room hotel is across Houston Street from the Fort Worth Convention Center. The hotel opens to its first guests Saturday.

Mike Deitemeyer, Omni Hotels president, spoke with the Star-Telegram about the new hotel before Monday’s festivities.

Q: The budget of the hotel grew to $230 million from $90 million. What was all that money spent on?

A: The changes in the budget really came out of the addition of the condominiums and the expansion of the food and beverage outlets. We had a vision for creating a lifestyle center, but as we worked through the process, we probably added one or two outlets beyond what was originally programmed.

Q: What is your favorite part/feature of the hotel? Do you like what you see?

A: I love it. We flew around Texas and looked at the newer Texas-themed hotels and resorts and took what we thought were the best pieces of all of them and brought them back here. Our objective was to make you feel like you are in Fort Worth, to frame the best parts of the community into the space. The wine is one of my favorites, and the stone wall cutting up through the meeting space is one of my favorite features.

Q: Hotels are seeing a drop in business because of the recession. When you started on this project, the economy certainly wasn’t what it is now. Is business also down for Omni and why do you think this hotel will fair well given this new climate?

A: Business is down with Omni. This hotel is actually going to open exceeding our pro forma, though. There’s been a lot of pent up demand for Fort Worth and we’re going to enter the year with already over 70,000 room nights on the books. Our forecasts have softened a little based on the economy, but it’s well ahead of our original projection.

Q: Likewise, the condo market has slowed some in downtown and the Omni was a project that jumped in when the condo market was ripe for the taking. How many of the 89 condos have sold? Will you have to lower prices to get the remainder sold or will you wait out the market?

A: Thirty units have sold and five more are in the process of being sold. It has slowed down, but we’re not going to discount heavily. We believe it’s unique enough that there will be demand. Absolutely, we can wait out the market.

BY THE NUMBERS

25 — Suites in the Omni

614 — Guest rooms

320 — Hotel parking spaces

350 — Employees1 million — Square footage of the hotel

$1 billion — Economic impact hotel will have on city in the next 20 years, city says

Source: Omni Fort Worth and City of Fort Worth