Dec. 18, 2012--A development team led by Williams/Dame & Associates has started construction on a 223-room hotel in the Pearl District, the neighborhood's first.

The extended-stay Residence Inn by Marriott at 1150 N.W. 9th Ave. is financed largely through the federal EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, which awards a visa and a path to permanent residency for foreign investors in job-creating projects. The total hotel construction cost isn't being released, but EB-5 investors contributed $49 million.

The 170,000-square-foot hotel project has been in the works for a year. It's expected to open early in 2014.

Williams/Dame, led by Portland developers Homer Williams and Dike Dame, are also leading a larger Marriott hotel project in Los Angeles financed using the EB-5 program.

Williams, his daughter Devin Williams and real estate broker Scott Fuller have established EB5 Global, a firm that specializes in using the visa program to provide equity for real estate projects.

--Elliot Njus Follow @ORFrontPorch

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