The Polaris area is set to get another hotel.

The parent company of the Drury Hotels chain has paid $3 million for a 5.4-acre site at the southwest corner of Gemini Place and Orion Place, where it plans to build a 187-room Drury Inn & Suites.

The company hopes to begin construction in the spring and have the hotel open by late 2019.

This would be the fourth Drury hotel in the Columbus area. The others are Downtown next to the Greater Columbus Convention Center, in Dublin and in Grove City.

Drury is an "upper-midscale" chain that appeals largely to business travelers during the week and leisure travelers on weekends, said Herb Wedemeier, senior vice president of the Missouri-based hotel chain's parent company, Drury Southwest.

Wedemeier said about 20 percent of the Polaris hotel's rooms would be suites. Other amenities are meeting space and an indoor pool.

Drury expects to invest roughly $20 million in the hotel, Wedemeier said. The hotel's final design needs to win local officials' approval.

The Polaris area has attracted a number of new hotels in recent years, including a Residence Inn by Marriott on Lyra Drive and a Homewood Suites and Holiday Inn Express and Suites along Polaris Parkway east of I-71. A Staybridge Suites is scheduled to open on Lyra Drive next month.

mrose@dispatch.com

@MarlaMRose