Feb. 28, 2012--Chattanooga-based Vision Hospitality Group on Monday started construction on a 134-room hotel at Hamilton Place, which is slated to open as a Hampton Inn & Suites in spring 2013.

It's part of a massive build-out of Chattanooga's stock of hotel space, which includes ongoing projects by various developers in the Gold Building on Pine Street in downtown Chattanooga, the downtown Spring Hill Suites by Marriott, and Hampton Inns in Cleveland, Tenn.; Kimball, Tenn.; and East Brainerd.

All told, there are an estimated 760 hotel rooms in various stages of development, a Times Free Press survey shows.

Mitch Patel, president and CEO of Vision Hospitality, previously opened a Hampton Inn & Suites in downtown Chattanooga, and began construction of a 97-room Hampton Inn in Cleveland earlier in 2012, he said.

"The Hampton Inn brand is one of the best hotel brands available today," Patel said

The six-story, $14 million hotel at Hamilton Place is Vision's third hotel in the Hamilton Place area, after the group opened the Hilton Garden Inn in 2004 and the Homewood Suites in 1997, the company said. Vision operates 17 hotels worth more than $250 million, according to a news release.

In addition to the rooms and suites, the new hotel will include 2,300 square feet of meeting space, an indoor pool, exercise room and business center.

Patel said he was "extremely excited" to get started on the new hotel, and praised the building's location, which is in the middle of the Hamilton Place shopping district.

"The hotel will be situated on a hill behind Big River Grille and will be in close proximity to restaurants and retail activity at the Hamilton Place area," Patel said. "Our continued partnership with Hilton reinforces our ongoing strategy to invest in premium brands in growing markets."

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