The Hotel Indigo takes its design cues from nature and the architectural concept of the 'golden mean.' Image from BayStar Hotel Group

TAMPA - Construction in the Channel District is scheduled to begin before year's end on the $29 million, 168-room Hotel Indigo, which the developer expects will take 13 to 14 months to build.

The hotel will be at Meridian, Cumberland and 11th streets, near The Florida Aquarium and St. Pete Times Forum.

"We are ready and have loan commitments, and all indications are we are moving forward," said Ford Smith, president of Tampa-based BayStar Hotel Group, which develops, acquires, sells and operates hotels in the Southeast.

The hotel is being developed under a joint venture partnership, Seaboard Hotel Associates LLC, comprised of BayStar and the St. Petersburg-based Ballast Point Group. Ballast Point plans to develop apartments and retail across the street at Cumberland and 11th Street, creating a mixed-use urban community.

The Indigo is a boutique hotel under the InterContinental Hotels Group, which includes the InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.

There are 27 Hotel Indigo locations in the United States, including in St. Petersburg, Sarasota and four others in Florida, and one each in Canada, Mexico and England.

"Channelside is a hip area so it is an ideal area for a Hotel Indigo," Smith said.

The 175,000-square-foot hotel will be seven stories and have nearly 3,500 square feet of retail space for lease on the first floor. It also will have a bistro-style Phi Cafe in the lobby with casual gourmet fare for breakfast and dinner.

Guest rooms will have hardwood floors and area rugs, and the lobby will set the design tone for the hotel with an surfboard-shaped check-in table rather then a conventional lobby desk.

Although each hotel has features that make it stand out from others in the Indigo brand, design elements are based on a concept known to architects and designers as the "golden mean" or "phi." The concept, which dates to the year 1200, involves a ratio of numbers that contributes to eye-pleasing patterns.

Examples can be found in graphic elements from nature, such as patterns from a pine cone or the leaves of a plant. Guests are invited to be attentive to those design features, much like visitors to Walt Disney World searching out "Hidden Mickeys," emblems of Mickey Mouse that Disney designers spread throughout the theme parks.

The hotel is expected to employ about 50 people, with another 150 to 200 involved in construction.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817.