The $20 million project has been in the works for two years and is being developed by Marsh Pittman, owner of the Power Alley Parking Garage and Madison, Wis.-based Raymond Management Group.
 

Raymond Management Group operates 38 Hilton properties. Barry Perkel, director of real estate with Raymond Management, said his company began scouting sites in Bricktown three years ago after being alerted to downtown Oklahoma City by one of his brokers.
 

&#x201There is a lot going on there,” Perkel said. “We are very excited about the opportunity to build a highquality, limited-service hotel.”
 

Pitman said he hopes the hotel will expand the downtown skyline. He said the architects will be Tom Wilson and Architectural Design Group, the architects who designed the neighboring SBC Bricktown Ballpark.
 

Pittman and Perkel said they want the hotel to complement the district and will include brick in its facade.
 

The hotel won’t have a restaurant, Pittman said, because the property at Sheridan Avenue and Central already is surrounded by eateries and clubs. But the hotel will be bigger than a typical Hampton Inn.
 

&#x201We were envisioning it as being about 150 rooms,” Pittman said. “But as we got into it and kept working it, it ended up we felt like we could get 200 rooms on the site.”
 

Pitman estimated construction will begin by March and be completed within 14 months.
 

The Hampton Inn, when built, will join a 150-room Residence Inn being built along Reno Avenue by John Q. Hammons as the first hotels to open in Bricktown.
 

And when combined with the renovation of the Skirvin Hotel and conversion of the Colcord into a boutique hotel, it will boost downtown’s room count to about 1,500 by 2007.