The Bethesda, MD-based hotelier awarded the $7.1-million construction contract to Irvine-based R.D. Olson, which has built several lodging facilities in the past. Plans call for a four-story, 144-room Townplace Suites hotel at 14000 Aviation Blvd. Completion is scheduled for next May.

Southern California's long economic boom and a tremendous increase in tourism are pushing occupancies and daily rates higher at hotel and resort properties across the region, experts say. Investors in coastal-area projects, including the South Bay, have enjoyed some of the biggest gains.

"The hotel market today is probably the strongest it has been in several years, from Los Angeles down to San Diego and every market in-between," Rod Apodaca of the Irvine office of investment brokers Sperry Van Ness tells GlobeSt.com.