Address: 3901 Minnesota Drive, Bloomington

Height: Nine stories

Rooms: 214

Developer & architect: Drury Southwest Inc.

Details: An underused surface parking lot at a prime spot in Bloomington will become the site of a nine-story hotel.

Cape Girardeau, Mo.-based Drury Southwest Inc. received unanimous approval from the Bloomington City Council to build a 214-room Drury Plaza Hotel on the 3.8-acre parcel located next to the Minnesota Center office building and just north of the Interstate 494 and France Avenue interchange.

The spot has a long history of abandoned plans, starting with the original 1980s-era vision of a four-building, 1.5 million-square-foot office complex on the southwest corner of Minnesota Drive and France Avenue to be built by Homart Development. The Minnesota Center is the only result of that plan. The southern portion of the quadrant eventually became the Southdale 494 Shopping Center.

The piece at 3901 Minnesota Drive, however, has remained a parking lot over the decades due to poor drainage and soil contamination. Drury said it has secured state funding to clean up the site and will move forward with plans for a high-end service hotel, a 327-space parking ramp and a 7,000-square-foot restaurant building.

Drury vice president of development Joe Pereles told Bloomington council members the hotel will be its first in Minnesota, with construction expected to start this summer. The company owns and operates all of its hotels, 150 across 25 states.