BILOXI, MS (AP) — A 110-room Comfort Suites will be built on the beach in Biloxi.
The only other accommodation built since Hurricane Katrina on the south side of U.S. Highway 90 from the Biloxi Bay Bridge to the Bay St. Louis Bridge is the South Beach condo hotel in Biloxi. Island View Casino is restoring the hotel tower on the south side of the highway in Gulfport.
Mary Perez with The Sun Herald reports Barrington Development, the company that recently restored and reopened the White House Hotel in Biloxi, will develop this hotel.
Plans for the new hotel were presented to Biloxi's Development Review Committee on Wednesday after the franchise agreement with Choice Hotels was signed Tuesday.
Variances are needed for about seven parking spaces and for density. Under Biloxi's regulations, only 30 hotel units are allowed per acre in that area, while Barrington officials said more rooms are needed to justify the investment in the beachfront land.
Jerry Creel, community development director for Biloxi, said the area is already zoned as community business.
South Mississippi is still 3,000 hotel rooms short of the pre-Hurricane Katrina inventory.
Creel said several more hotels are proposed in Biloxi, including a LaQuinta just west of Interstate 110, a hotel at the former Gulf Coast Regional Hospital, and a Hyatt Place near the Hampton Inn. The city also is in discussion with developers who want to build a Marriott, Best Western, Hilton Garden Inn, Mainstay and other as-yet unnamed hotels, he said.
