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

Jaynes says the Polaris market is one of the best in theColumbus area, and is full of successful retail projects. Forexample, the Market at Polaris, a 209,000-sf power center here, wassold by Continental Retail Development to Inland Western RealEstate 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 reallystrong emerging area," Jaynes says. There's four million sf ofoffice, with a couple million more sf planned. There's also anamphitheater that will hold 20,000 people. These are quite thedemand drivers."