Mina Patel and her husband, Munu Hira, recently received approval to construct a four-story, rather than a three-story, Comfort Inn Suites and Hotel in Rio Rico southeast of the Ruby Road intersection with Interstate 19.

Mina Patel and her husband, Munu Hira, plan to build a hotel just south of Ruby Road.

The hotel, with 77 guest rooms, meeting rooms, and a restaurant, is expected to cost between $6.5 million and $7 million, Patel said. She purchased the property several years ago and a sign announcing the hotel has been in place more than two years.

Patel and Hira requested approval for the four-story hotel from the Santa Cruz County Board of Adjustment District 2 at a meeting held April 16. The land is zoned to allow a hotel, but the height limit is 35 feet. A variance was required for the taller structure, which was described by Santa Cruz County Planner Rick Hindman as being no more than 60-feet tall.

Hira said that while the construction contractor might not be from Santa Cruz County, they will insist that local labor be employed. He said he anticipates at least 15 employees when the hotel is opened.

Dan Doyle, acting as chairman of the board in the absence of Chairman Robert Valdez, asked when construction will start. Hira said that he and Patel had hoped it would be finished by now. But when the economy shifted, it made finding financing much more difficult.

“Now, we’re in an advanced stage of negotiation with the bank, and we’re hopeful that within three or four months” work will start, Hira said. “The quicker we do it, the better for us.”

Patel, a physician, owns a Days Inn and Suites in Tucson. She and Hira are in the process of having two other hotels constructed in Prescott Valley, Ariz., she said.

In addition to Doyle, board members Nellie Guevara and Michael Dougherty voted in favor of the requested variance.

(Reach the writer at kathleenvan@msn.com.)