The 87-room Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott has helped lift Meridian's hotel room capacity to more than 2,000 rooms.

    After 14 months of construction, Meridian’s newest hotel is open for business.

    The 87-room Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott is the latest addition to Meridian’s growing lodging market, which, according to city and tourism officials, now has more than 2,000 rooms.

     The Meridian hotel will employ 23 people.

    “This (Meridian) is such a great location because we’re right on I-20, between Birmingham and Texas,” Sales Director Janie Brown said. “We’re right at that halfway point.”

    Construction took more than a year because an access road had to be built linking the hotel property to US 11/80, and because of weather delays. Interim Community Development Department Director Bunky Partridge said the access road will be co-owned by both the city and Fairfield Inn.

    General Manager Theresa Fuller said the new hotel will quickly meet the needs of a growing lodging economy in Meridian and greater Lauderdale County.

    “The Kemper Plant will continue to need rooms for the remainder of the year,” Fuller said of the $6 billion power plant being built by Mississippi Power Company. “Then there is the State Games of Mississippi and the (Mississippi Soccer Association’s) President’s Cup Soccer Tournament.”

    Brown said other events in downtown Meridian, like the MSU Riley Center, help drive the market.

    “The Riley Center needed more rooms and we’re seeing more conferences come in and that means more competition for the hotels,” Brown said.

    The Highway 11/80 strip now has a handful of hotels, including the seven-story Drury Inn, Hilton Gardens Inn, Hampton Inn, Super 8, Rodeway and Days Inn. A Holiday Inn Express is across Highway 39 on the South Frontage Rd. along with a new Sleep Inn that is expected to open by April.

    “We have a good bundle of hotel rooms right here,” said Fuller, who has more than 30 years in the hotel business.

    “All the hotels here work well,” she said. “We all want to build together.”

    Brown, who also has worked several years in hotel, said they hope to get the hotel’s Highway 11/80 sign up soon.