Another step toward the proposed Threefoot project, in which the long-abandoned Threefoot building will be reconstructed into an approximately 120-room hotel, was taken at a city council meeting Tuesday.

The council passed a resolution authorizing a public hearing on the Urban Renewal Plan, which encompasses the project, and issuing the city’s intent to sell up to $14 million in bonds, the money from the sale of which will be loaned to the project.

The resolution did not obligate the city financially, it only stated that the city intended to make the loan in the future.

The public hearing will be held July 15 at 5 p.m. in the court room at the Meridian Police Station.

City of Meridian Chief Administrative Officer Ken Storms said the $14 million limit will probably not be reached. He said the city expects the amount to be under $10 million.

According to the Urban Renewal Plan, the project may extend past the Threefoot building itself. It could include the old parking garage located beside the Threefoot building, the Brown Printing building, the Kress building, as well as some other buildings nearby. None of the plan is currently set in stone, and much of it is only ideas, or “thoughts,” Storms said.

One of those thoughts is the conversion of the second and third floors of the Kress building into a ballroom and/or dining facility, which would serve both the hotel and the MSU-Riley Center for Education and the Performing Arts. This is only an idea at this time, and may or may not take place.

According to the Urban Renewal Plan, the project may also include “‘check-in’ surface parking, a ground level pedestrian walk to the City’s parking garage, a public plaza/park area adjacent thereto, ballrooms/conference centers, and other projects related thereto.”

“The particulars are going to have to be determined as we go along,” Storms said.

The city will present the Urban Renewal Plan at the public hearing, in which citizens will be able to contribute questions or comments.