Aug. 27–A Hilton Garden Inn is under construction in Olympia, one of several developments in the area being pursued by a Seattle developer.

The developer is Hotel Concepts, which brought two hotels — a Holiday Inn Express and a Candlewood Suites — to Third Avenue in Lacey several years ago.

Now, postrecession, Hotel Concepts is at it again, wanting to bring two hotels to a site off Interstate 5 at the Henderson Boulevard roundabout.

The first of the hotels is under construction. It’s a 118-room Hilton Garden Inn that is expected to open in summer 2016, said Han Kim, a partner in Hotel Concepts. The hotel will have meeting space, a restaurant, an exercise room and a swimming pool. It will employ about 40 people, he said.

Once complete, those driving by on I-5 won’t see the front of the hotel, but the back of it. The hotel facade will face south, Kim said.

And the developers have more in store for that site, seeking to bring a Marriott Courtyard to the same area and create the side-by-side effect that they accomplished with the Lacey hotels.

Although the Hilton Garden Inn is under construction, the Marriott Courtyard proposal is in its infancy.

The city has received a land-use application for the project, and it has undergone a first review, said Cari Hornbein, senior planner for the Olympia Community Planning and Development Department.

Hotel Concepts also is redeveloping the former Capitol Plaza Hotel on Capitol Way in downtown Olympia into an extended-stay Marriott brand called TownePlace Suites. That project is expected to be finished before the end of the year, Kim said.

Kim is bullish on Olympia because it hasn’t been home to a new hotel in a long time, he said.

“The market is ripe,” Kim said.

Kim also is part of a group that owns the former Bailey’s Motor Inn on Martin Way, a business that closed in 2013 and since has devolved into a community eyesore. It is fenced off from the public and recently caught on fire.

Kim said he wants to bring an apartment building to the site, although he and his group are working on the details.

Among other recent changes to the local hotel market are:

— The downtown Olympia Phoenix Inn is now a DoubleTree by Hilton.

— Downtown’s Governor Hotel has been renovated under new ownership. It also has become part of Coast Hotels.

— A 123-room Hampton Inn & Suites is under construction on Martin Way in Olympia.

— An 80-room La Quinta on Capitol Boulevard in Tumwater is nearly complete.

— The Red Lion Hotel in west Olympia is being renovated.

Rolf Boone: 360-754-5403

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@rolf_boone