Construction is scheduled to begin next month.
The hotel, expected to open in early 2001, will occupy a small rectangular parcel on the Ninth Street riverfront plaza next to the Radisson Riverfront Hotel Augusta, the partnership's previous development. The partnership developed the Radisson and its neighboring office complex, the Augusta Riverfront Center, to lure regional conventions back to Augusta and encourage development along the city's then-decrepit riverfront. Mr. Simon said to the crowd. That project will double the city's meeting space and is part of a deal the partnership ironed out with city for its part in helping finance the Radisson's construction with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development economic development loans. Political wrangling stalled the project for nearly two years.