Martel Construction is getting started on a project to build a Hilton Homewood Suites in north Kalispell.

“We started the Tuesday after Memorial Day and plans are for it to be completed by June 2013,” project manager Ryan Dunn said.

Martel Construction is building the estimated $8.5 million Hilton for Bennett Hofford Co., a development group based in Charleston, S.C.

The four-floor hotel will sit off U.S. 93 in the Hutton Ranch Plaza shopping center, near  Signature Theatres and Walmart.

The new hotel will have 100 spacious suites, each with a fully equipped kitchen. The hotel also will include a swimming pool, spa, fitness center, sports court, fire pits and all of the other upscale amenities of a Hilton Homewood Suites.

A small crew has mobilized on site and started to put in water lines and other infrastructure and excavate for the hotel’s foundation.

“Right now we have very few guys working on it. We will probably have a peak of 75 to 100 people on the job,” Dunn said.

The project has been in the works since about 2008.

“We built the same hotel for this group in Bozeman, so this is a repeat client of ours,” Dunn said.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.