June 29–A Hampton Inn & Suites set to open next summer is the latest addition to the bustling Westshore business community, which aims to be a hub for business travelers and more recently, medical tourism.

Tampa-based McKibbon Hotel Group broke ground Monday on the 178-room hotel in Avion Park not far from Tampa International Airport. The business park is already home to three other hotels, the BioSpine Institute, A1 Express airport remote parking services and some retail operations. In addition to the fourth hotel, two freestanding restaurants are expected to open in the park next year. The first is a 4,800-square-foot World of Beer tavern.

“We won’t recognize Westshore in next 10 years. This is Tampa’s time,” said Bob Buckhorn, the mayor of Tampa at a ground breaking ceremony on Monday.

Westshore has the highest concentration of hotels in all of Hillsborough County, said Ann Kulig, deputy director of the Westshore Alliance.

“We’ve seen huge growth, thanks to the visibility of the airport,” she said. “We’ve been a destination for business travelers, but are starting to see an influx of leisure travelers, too.”

Construction is ongoing at the Laser Spine Institute, the company’s $56 million headquarters in Avion Park, which will add about 100 jobs with an average annual pay of about $80,000. The company has set aside 35,000 additional square feet of space to expand further in the future.

The new 110,250-square-feet Hampton Inn & Suites will serve the spine institute’s patients and their families, said John McKibbon, chairman of McKibbon Hotel Group, the company that owns and built Avion Park.

“The huge factor in Avion Park’s success is the Tampa airport, which truly is the best airport in the country,” McKibbon said.

McKibbon Hotel Group built a Hilton Garden Inn, Homewood Suites and TownPlace Suites which opened in 2009, just in time for the Super Bowl XLIII at Raymond James Stadium and the onslaught of the Great Recession. The Hampton Inn & Suites is the company’s 11th hotel to open in the Tampa area.

“It was a rough start, but Westshore has become such a business friendly community,” McKibbon said.

Since then, the Laser Spine Institute has moved in, as well as several other medical facilities in the Westshore area, including Moffitt Cancer Center, a Florida Orthopedic center and (Five) Labs.

“We hope to expand medical tourism in this part of Tampa,” said Santiago Corrada, president and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay. “And we plan to bid to host the 2019 or 2020 Super Bowl, which Westshore will play a major role in.”

Medical tourism has long been a draw of travelers to Florida. Last year, Visit Florida, the state’s tourism agency, launched a $2.5 million grant program to lure more medical meetings here and for destination promotion.

Contact Justine Griffin at [email protected]. Follow @SunBizGriffin on Twitter.