WESTMINSTER - Work has begun on a 212-room Marriott hotel in Westminster that is expected to open in the fall of 2013.

The Marriott Denver Westminster at 7000 Church Ranch Blvd. will overlook U.S. Highway 36. According to a release from White Lodging Services Corp., which will operate the hotel, the Marriott is the first full-service hotel to be built in the corridor in more than a decade.

The hotel will have a full-service restaurant and 12,000 square feet of meeting and conference space.

Denver-based Etkin-Johnson Group Inc. is partnering with White Lodging to build the hotel. The designer is PFVS Architects, an Atlanta-based firm.

Their plans allow them to expand the hotel to 297 guestrooms in the future, according to the city of Westminster.

Etkin-Johnson built the 164-room SpringHill Suites by Marriott at 6845 W. 103rd Ave., which is adjacent to the Marriott. The group has plans to build a 115-room Hyatt Place hotel in Westminster after the Marriott is completed.

According to the city of Westminster, the hotel is expected to add 100 jobs.

The Marriott Denver Westminster is targeted to tourists and business travelers, and is entering a competitive market.

"It will absolutely be in direct competition with the hotels in Boulder," Boulder Convention & Visitors Bureau executive director Mary Ann Mahoney said.

The conference facilities are not large enough to supersede the Boulder conference and convention center the bureau has been lobbying for, Mahoney said. That would have more than three to four times the space and be able to host events large enough to benefit other hotels in the region, she said.