Council approves new hotel for former College Football Hall of Fame

South Bend's former College Football Hall of Fame building will soon have a new tenant. 

The South Bend Common Council voted unanimously to bring a new hotel to the location on St. Joseph Street. 

This vote includes a nine year tax abatement. 

“This is huge,” says Council President Tim Scott.

“We're basically looking at a five story hotel. It's going to have 120 guestrooms,” says A.J. Patel with JSK Development Inc. 

JSK Development is the company spearheading this mission.

“This would kind of compliment the Century Center,” says Patel. 

He says when the Century Center holds conventions, the Double Tree Hotel across the street doesn't have enough rooms to keep people close to their conference space. 

But this new hotel will help with the effort adding a more direct route. 

“With it being connected from the tunnel to the Century Center to the Hall of Fame, this is going to be huge. This is going to be great for the city,” says Scott.

More rooms mean more conventions, which means more revenue for South Bend's bank account. 

“By adding the additional rooms they need, we're able to go after $40 million worth of business that Century had to pass on before,” says Patel. 

Chris Fielding with Community Investment says this hotel will create about 38 new jobs. 

Patel says they hope to break ground by March of 2016 and right now they're still searching for which hotel will move into the space.