A new hotel group has its eye on downtown Traverse City, and wants to build along the Grandview Parkway.

The group is called 'Hotel Indigo'. They're eyeing a piece of property in the Warehouse District. And the local DDA says that's an ideal spot. Rob Bacigalupi with the Traverse City Downtown Development Authority says, "Physically, especially on the parkway, it's not the most attractive part of downtown, and it's really ripe for some type of development."

Developers want to spend about $10 (M) million dollars to build a 105 room hotel. Garth Greenan is a Consulting Engineer working on the Hotel Indigo project, and spoke to 7 & 4 News on behalf of the developers. "We've been meeting with people in the Warehouse District the past couple of months and showing them plans and revising plans to try to fit the neighborhood." Curths says he's also excited about the improvements a new development could bring to existing businesses in the Warehouse District. "I think this would give the opportunity quite immediately to connect with West Front Street, to the Open Space, and it would allow Garland Street to become a real street and add street lights and some pedestrian and bicycle lanes, sidewalks."

Local business owners like Mike Curths at the Inside Out Gallery agree. "They seem to really have an eye for the detail. They came into the neighborhood and they're in the community, they know what the feel is we're trying to do in the Warehouse District. "

Developers want to buy and tear down three buildings for a four story hotel and add 75 parking spaces -- all underground.  That could tie-in to the city's goals of improving pedestrian access to the open space - and back to the businesses in the Warehouse District. Bacigalupi says it would potentially line-up with the City's Bayfront Plan. "If there's some construction over there, if someone's already digging in the ground we could perhaps go underground and complete a connection to the volleyball court and beach area."

One catch- developers are also looking at property in Louisiana, and only want to build one hotel at a time. The site that receives the first approval could likely be the site that starts building first. Garth says, "really over the next 30 days or so, 30-60 days, they'll be making a decision on which of the hotels they're gonna build, and once they make the commitment they're gonna go ahead with it."

The hotel spokesman says the developers are willing to work within Traverse City's zoning regulations and won't be asking for any exceptions. The city is tentatively planning to review the site plan for the hotel at a meeting in early June. If all goes well they could break ground this summer and open by the summer of 2011.