Germantown aldermen Monday evening approved a five-story, 220-room hotel development as part of TraVure, the mixed use project under construction on Poplar near Kirby Parkway.

The board awarded a development contract that will allow Germantown Hotel Group LLC to proceed with construction on the dual brand hotel. Home2 Suites, an extended stay facility, and Hilton Garden Inn, described as an upscale but mid-priced hotel, will make up the project.

Aldermen approved the hotel project, which constitutes TraVure's second phase, unanimously.

The four-phase TraVure project, on about 10 acres, was developed under Germantown's Smart Growth zoning strategy that encourages a mixture of uses on multiple levels to make best use of the city's limited developable area. In addition to the hotels, the project also will include retail development on the ground floor of a building being developed in a separate phase, and two floors of offices above the retail space. The project also calls for multi-deck parking.

TraVure is part of a larger vision for upscale development at the entrance to the city from the west along Poplar, known as the Western Gateway Small Area Plan. The city's planners and aldermen approved the overall outline plan for TraVure in July 2015, and planners gave final approval to specific plans for the first three phases in December. The final phase, however, was revised to increase the size of the office building from 34,100 square feet to a 47,396-square-foot structure approved in February.

Alderman Dean Massey, before Monday evening's approval of the hotel phase, questioned whether there would be adequate parking since the plan calls for 220 rooms and 194 parking spaces. Planning Director Cameron Ross noted that hotel tenants would also have access to the shared parking planned in the garage.

The overall TraVure project drew strong opposition from nearby residential neighbors during original discussions. Most of the complaints came from residents of Nottoway, the gated community to the east. They complained about light coming from the parking garage, among other concerns.

The original TraVure proposal presented by Gill deviated from Germantown's SmartGrowth code in a dozen different ways, but the deviations were eliminated by working with neighbors to find compromises despite the objections that remained from Nottoway neighbors in the final plan.

Developer Ray Gill said earlier he hopes to have the fourth and final phase complete by summer 2018.