By Karen Vance
Enquirer contributor

MILFORD - Construction of a hotel in the city's River's Edge development will begin again this month after a fire derailed the project last spring.

An Indian Hill youth set fire to the Hawthorne Suites when it was about 70 percent complete last year on its Chamber Drive property at the intersection of U.S. 50 and Interstate 275. Napstak II will rebuild the project - this time, bigger and better, said Alex Patel, a partner in the company.

The partners have decided to build a Homewood Suites, part of the Hilton Family of hotels, with 76 to 82 rooms each with about 500 square feet and a fully equipped kitchen. The new facility will also include a banquet hall, basketball court and swimming pool. The extended-stay hotel is set for a spring 2005 opening.

The new plan has been approved by the Milford Planning Commission, said Assistant City Manager Jeff Wright. "It looks like the building will be much more upscale and will really benefit Milford."

The building, which will be four stories instead of the originally planned three and will take up more of the 1.5-acre lot, will cost between $2 million and $2.5 million more than the previous one, for a total of about $6.5 million. Some of the additional costs are due to the redesign and the expense of ripping out the concrete pad that was left after the fire, he said.

"It was a struggle. We lost a lot of money from that fire because the insurance company didn't pay everything we put into it," Patel said. "It's just a stick building to them, but to us it's a part of our lives. It's our baby."

Last month, the teenager was convicted of the April 13 arson and smaller acts of vandalism, sentenced to three years in prison, and ordered to pay more than $2 million back to the insurance company.

"But that's the past, and we're looking forward to the future," said Patel, who with his partners also owns and operates the Holiday Inn Express in Milford on Ohio 28.