Hall Structured Finance provided the venture with a $43-million loan for the construction of the 253-unit hotel. Mike Jaynes, president of Hall, tells GlobeSt.com that the new hotel is now under construction. "It should be finished by April 2008," he says. The hotel is about three miles north of I-270, right off the I-71 interchange.

Jaynes says the Polaris market is one of the best in the Columbus area, and is full of successful retail projects. For example, the Market at Polaris, a 209,000-sf power center here, was sold by Continental Retail Development to Inland Western Real Estate Trust as part of a four-property portfolio in April 2006 for $63.5 million.

"The fashion mall is the main engine for the area, a really strong emerging area," Jaynes says. There's four million sf of office, with a couple million more sf planned. There's also an amphitheater that will hold 20,000 people. These are quite the demand drivers."

The developer, NP, has built six other hotel projects in and around Columbus. The company is also working on a Marriott in Merimack, NH; Hampton Inn & Suites in Lakeland, FL and a Marriott Fairfield in Sanford, FL. Jo Bursey with NP negotiated the financing with Jaynes.