The first hotel in Newark's Ironbound section is scheduled to open in summer 2015.-(Rendering courtesy of Comito Associates)

Local officials have cleared the way for a developer to build the first hotel in Newark’s Ironbound section, adding to the growing pipeline of hospitality projects in the state’s largest city.Plans for the 94-unit boutique hotel were approved Thursday night by the Newark zoning board, according to a news release from Comito Associates, the project’s architect. Construction is set to begin in July, with an opening scheduled for summer 2015 as the Carvi Newark hotel.

The six-story building, which is being developed by the Seabra Group, also will include conference rooms, ground-floor retail and other amenities, the news release said. The 75,000-square-foot structure will occupy a corner on Lafayette and Monroe streets.

Greg Comito of Comito Associates said the building’s design will focus on a sky-lit atrium, plus a rooftop lounge that offers views of Newark and Manhattan and will provide “a chic setting” aimed at drawing guests who stay in the city.

“It was only a matter of time,” Comito said in a prepared statement. “(T)he demand for hotel space in the Ironbound is obvious.”

The hotel will be in the heart of the city’s Ironbound district and among the restaurants and shops that have made it one of Newark’s top cultural hubs.

The Carvi is one of several hotels under development in the Brick City. The newest is the 106-room Hotel Indigo at Broad Street and Edison Place, where the Hanini Group rehabilitated the century-old First National State Bank building.

The city’s first new downtown hotel in decades came in fall 2012, when Tucker Development Corp. opened the Courtyard by Marriott opened alongside the Prudential Center.

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