Print edition: 
The city has backed off on a plan to give a $7.5 million no-bid contract to Key Construction for a downtown parking garage.
Douglas Place developers and the city have reached a tentative agreement to take bids on the construction contract for the publicly financed parking garage.
The garage is part of a $30 million plan to build a 117-room boutique hotel on the southeast corner of Douglas and Broadway.
The agreement is a shift from the initial plan to have Key Construction, whose officials are partners in the hotel project, build the structure without going out for bids.
On Thursday, two of the hotel developers said they were fine with taking bids.
"I don't see where the change is a deal-breaker," said Paul Coury, a Tulsa boutique hotel developer who's heading up the Douglas Place project.
Other developers include Dave Burk's Marketplace Properties and Summit Holdings, which is made up of Key Construction management.
"We believe that Key will bid on the project and actually be the contractor on the project," Burk said. "I'd put odds on that."
However, Burk said developers acknowledge the need for an open bid process.
"Just working with city staff and talking to some of the council members, this makes them feel easier about the project, bidding that part of it," he said.
Dave Wells, president of Key Construction and a project partner, deferred comment Thursday afternoon to his partners.
The original no-bid plan produced a testy exchange Aug. 9 between Mayor Carl Brewer and council member Michael O'Donnell, who raised questions about Key's campaign donations to several council members.
In order to award the no-bid contract, two-thirds of the council would have to approve a charter ordinance awarding the garage project to Key, City Attorney Gary Rebenstorf said last month.
O'Donnell said Thursday that the votes aren't there.
"It will need to be bid," O'Donnell said. "You have to change council policy and get a super-majority not to bid it ... and I think we have the votes to make sure that doesn't happen."
O'Donnell stuck to the concerns he voiced during the Aug. 9 council meeting.
"Our number one job here is to be a steward of the people's money. It's not right, even if something like this is legal," he said.
The parking garage will be financed by $3.325 million in general obligation tax increment financing bonds. Tax increment financing is used to help subsidize projects. The property taxes paid on a project are used to pay for improvements to benefit the project.
Another part of the garage financing is $4.25 million in general obligation bonds repaid by taxpayers. Also included is an urban park on the site.
Douglas Place is the first project to gain approval under the city's new public-private partnership guidelines in the Downtown Development Incentives Policy.
