The city council approved a downtown hotel project Thursday night that yield private investment of $35 to $38 million.

The council gave the go-ahead on the project with a 5-0 vote.

The development agreement with Birmingham-based Southaven Associates LLC will bring a Hyatt House hotel to what's now a surface parking lot at Holmes Avenue and Jefferson Street.

The hotel will be nine floors, which will make it one of the city's tallest buildings.

The city will also invest up to $600,000 to purchase land at the hotel site to expand the micro Washington Park area, which will "gives the city a great gathering spot downtown," Shane Davis, the city's director of urban and economic development, told the council during his presentation.

The city will also pay for infrastructure improvements at the site as well as streetscape improvements that Davis said were planned and budgeted before the hotel project came along. Those costs are estimated to be between $750,000-1 million, Davis said.

The hotel will include 145 rooms, a full-service restaurant, meeting space and rooftop bar. The development agreement calls for construction to begin Jan. 1, 2020 and for the hotel to be completed by Dec. 31, 2021. Davis said good weather could shave up to five months off the construction schedule.

The city will also lease to the hotel up to 205 parking spaces combined between the yet-to-be-built Greene Street garage and the Clinton Avenue garage at no charge for three years. Starting with the fourth year, rent at escalating rates will be charged to the hotel for the parking spaces.