By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM – Construction of a Hampton Inn on Market Street is moving forward, now that the developer has paid $1.2 million for the lot and has submitted paperwork for a building permit.

Andy Patel of Visions Hotels of Corning says he has purchased the 3.44-acre lot at 167 Market St. from Potsdam builder Jim Sheehan, and is looking for local financing.

The property is home to the Scoopuccinos building, which is being dismantled, and Ton’s Sports Bar, which recently closed and will reopen in the former Tardelli’s Restaurant building.

“We still don’t have the financing in place, but as soon as we do, we’ll put it out to bid and get pricing,” Patel said.

The hotel is based on “the newest prototype Hampton Inns,” Patel said, and will have an indoor swimming pool, a fitness room, and a small meeting room. Patel expects it to cost $6 million to $7 million to build. Local officials have sought to attract a hotel developer to the village for more than 30 years.

“We have a good relationship with Southern Tier banks, but this is a new area for us, and we’re looking for local participating banks.”

Patel said he is hoping to start building this year, somewhat later than the start this past spring he had hoped for when he announced the plan last November. He believes it will take close to a year from start to finish.

The site plan has been approved by the village, and he has submitted drawings as part of the building permit application.

The existing businesses on the site have moved, will move, or have closed.

The Village Florist building behind Scoopuccino has been demolished and the business has moved to 75 Market St.

Scoopuccino, a café and restaurant Sheehan built on the site in 2005, has closed, but Sheehan is moving it to a lot he owns on Country Lane near Lowe’s, north of the village. The work to break the building down was underway this week. “It’s too nice a building to just let it go,” he said.

A new hotel in town has been part of the village’s official wish list for years.

The extra room capacity would be helpful during things like hockey tournaments, busy college graduation weekends, and alumni weekends, when lodging space can be snapped up fast.

Patel, whose Visions Hotels has properties in Watertown and Central and Western New York, has discussed ideas for hotels over the years with planners in the region and he has made prospecting trips to the North Country to gauge the need for hotels and availability of property.

He presented a Hampton Inn proposal in Canton last July, on property to the east of the University Plaza on U.S. 11, but has said that project would not go forward anytime soon if the Potsdam development proceeds.