Address: 6250 Earle Brown Dr., Brooklyn Center

Type: Hospitality

Guest rooms: 82

Developer: Brooklyn Center Hotel Group LLC

Architect: Silvestri Architects

Details: More than a decade after development proposals were first floated for a vacant two-acre parcel near the Earle Brown Heritage Center, the city-owned site landed a new Fairfield Inn & Suites hotel.

Plans for the 82-room building, submitted by hotelier Harsham Patel, were unanimously approved this fall by the Brooklyn Center City Council.

In 2005, it was included in a proposal by Duluth-based Oliver Cos. to build a pair of hotels and a water park. The company eventually built one hotel, the Embassy Suites Minneapolis, but the plans for the second hotel and the water park were dropped.

The next proposal came in 2013 when a North Dakota developer submitted plans for a Candlewood Suites. That also never materialized. Now Patel, a 26-year-old University of Minnesota graduate who last year opened a Fairfield Inn & Suites in Rochester, has won approvals to buy the property from the city for $100,000 and proceed with a project there.

Hotel plans include enough high-quality building materials and architectural design features to satisfy city officials, who regard the property as an important link between the Earle Brown center and neighboring businesses and offices. The project calls for an opening before Super Bowl LII is played at U.S. Bank Stadium in January 2018.

Don Jacobson