The City of Washington Urban Redevelopment Authority will host two public hearings next Thursday to present the nearly completed plan for a hotel adjacent to the Pope Center.

The hearings are set for Thursday, July 15, at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. at The Pope Center so that authority members can present a full report on the proposed hotel project to the public and to hear public opinions on the controversial project.

The authority will be meeting earlier that day to finalize the proposal in preparation for presenting it to

hotel at the

the Washington City Council at ots regular meeting on Monday night, July 19, at 6 p.m.

The Washington City Council is meeting on the third Monday rather than the usual second Monday due to a scheduling conflict with a MEAG meeting.

Urban Redevelopment Authority chairman Charles Jackson, vice chairman Henry Harris, and treasurer Toombs McLendon IV, along with City Attorney Barry Fleming and Main Street Manager David Jenkins met last week in Atlanta with Don French and Andrew Ackerman of Somata Group LLC, David Wilmar of LaQuinta Inns, Hotel Equities’ Mary Beth Cutsall, and Ed Wall of Stern Agee.

“The presentation gave the authority nearly final operating numbers,” Jenkins said, “enough to finalize the proposal they will present to the city council on July 19.”

The operating numbers given at the Atlanta meeting should allow the city to structure the deal, Jenkins said, so that the hotel will at least break even, if not make money, in the first years.

Once the city council hears the authority’s recommendation, council members will vote whether or not to build the hotel, with the City of Washington guaranteeing up to $8.5 million in revenue bonds to fund the construction.