By Hub City Times staff

MARSHFIELD – Without discussion, Marshfield aldermen have advanced a major hotel development in the city.

On Jan. 22, the Marshfield Common Council signed off on the Plan Commission’s recent endorsement of an 86-room Hampton Inn & Suites on the site of the now-shuttered Knights of Columbus Hall at 400 W. Upham St., Marshfield.

The council’s endorsement paves the way for Prairie Lodging LLC to construct the four-story structure once the KC Hall is demolished.

The approval comes two weeks after the council did not get enough “yes” votes to create a Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) district to assist Prairie Lodging in developing the hotel.

That vote did not mean the end of the proposed development.

“The developer is ready to go,” said City Administrator Steve Barg. “The goal would be to start in the spring, probably middle-to-late April. It depends on weather, of course, but their goal is to complete construction of this 86-unit hotel by around Thanksgiving.”

The project will now move ahead under certain conditions laid out by the Plan Commission last week. No. 1 is that the south side of the hotel property not have access off of Leonhard Street, except for emergency vehicles. Those residents also do not want sidewalks on their side of the street, and they also asked for, and got, a requirement that some sort of buffer be created between the hotel and Leonhard Street, using shrubs, trees, or fencing.