Several construction projects will soon reshape Owasso's hospitality sector, more than quadrupling its available hotel rooms. The growing northern Tulsa suburb just saw its third property come online with the 88-room Candlewood Suites. By itself, that three- floor hotel increased the city's 120-room inventory by 73 percent, those rooms equally split between the Holiday Inn Express and Best Western.

In February the 103-suite Hampton Inn should open at the Smith Farm Marketplace retail complex. Across U.S. Highway 169, two more hotels are expected next year at the Tyann Plaza development - a 90- room Marriott Town Center and a four-story, 81-room Comfort Inn and Suites.

City of Owasso Economic Development Director Rickey Hayes said an unidentified hotel also is under development for the Smith Farm area.

"You probably have a market that was extremely underserved in the Owasso area," said Mike R. Craddock, Tulsa managing broker for HotelBrokerOne of Oklahoma City. "The marketplace has been extremely strong up there for hotels and for the retail. It's just been phenomenal success overall for business in Owasso."

Hayes said that one-year expansion from two to seven hotels also would reflect increased traffic from business travelers, both along main thoroughfare U.S. Highway 169 and from Tulsa International Airport.

"The industry people tell us that the business traveler coming into Tulsa, and I've heard some as high as 2,500 per day during the week come by, prefer new midrange-priced rooms around plenty of restaurants," said Hayes.

With several million square feet of new retail space added over the past three years, all supporting a variety of national and regional restaurants, Hayes said Owasso fits all those needs.

"But the main thing's ease of access," he said, referring to the short distance from Tulsa's main airport. "We're very, very accessible to the airport."

Some of these projects still have hurdles to pass before they become reality. While construction has started on the Marriott, with possible completion this summer, Tyann Development Co. manager Steve Compton said the Comfort Inn remains in the zoning stage, with its proposal going before the Owasso Planning Commission in January.

"Once it is rezoned, we will continue negotiations to sell the lot," he said.

Both city and Owasso Chamber of Commerce officials expect the Comfort Inn to materialize.

"The other one is a project that just closed on seven acres on the south end of Smith Farm," Hayes said of the city's projected seventh hotel. "The owner will not tell us the brand but there's a hotel and two restaurants in the mix. I assume it will be something to complement what we have, something in the same price range."

All of these projects dovetail with Owasso's retail growth, much of that along 96th Street, said Craddock.

The two-year-old, 550,000-square-foot Smith Farm Marketplace has started a 150,000-square-foot expansion that will add JCPenney, Olive Garden and Ross Dress For Less to a retail confluence that includes Target, Hobby Lobby, Belk's, Best Buy, Starbucks and Old Navy.

Tyann Plaza has approached the 70-percent occupancy level at its initial 38,000-square-foot shopping center, with outer lots sold to Logan's Roadhouse, Cracker Barrel, Steak 'N Shake and Aldi USA.

Neighboring retail complexes also have performed well, populated by giants like Wal-Mart, Lowe's and Home Depot.

"It's my understanding that some of the prices per square foot for retail in Owasso are higher than at 71st and Memorial," said Craddock, referring to Tulsa's biggest retail corridor. "That bodes well for the marketplace."

The hotels also mark the rising traffic along U.S. Highway 169, the opening of two hospitals in the Owasso area and the regional emergence of the Owasso economy, serving a population estimated at more than 400,000.

"We're bigger than we look because people shop who don't live here," said Hayes. "And I think the hotel people see the same thing."

Even so, that many hotel rooms coming online at one time can't help but raise competition fears in a city of 35,703 residents, even with projected 17-percent population growth by the year 2010.

"It is always hard to tell what is too much," said Craddock.

But he said the variety of product bodes well for the city, ranging from the mid-market Comfort Inn and the business-class Hampton to the extended-stay Marriott and Candlewood.

"Those properties can definitely handle the increase in activity," said Craddock. "Only time will tell if additional properties are needed."

Hayes said some hotel executives have suggested even more product could be on the way.

"There's some talk of renewed interest in a full-service hotel here," he said. "The hotel industry has told me, don't be surprised if we have eight by the time it's all over."