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Officials are eyeing a proposed hotel that could provide multiple benefits to Manassas.

Many travel to the city for its historic sites, the Greater Manassas Baseball League (GMBL), and work purposes.

“The [Manassas Regional A]irport generates a lot of hotel nights in the area, because you have people flying in for business, you have pilots who have to stay over,” Councilman Ian Lovejoy, who acts as liaison to the Airport Commission, told What’s Up Prince William.

However, the lack of hotels has forced visitors to search for a place to stay beyond the city limits.

Building a proposed Tru hotel may solve the issue.

“We’re losing these people to the county, where they’re going to eat and where they’re going to shop,” Lovejoy said. “This keeps them in the city, increasing the likelihood that they would frequent at a city restaurant or city shopping.”

On Thursday night, Lovejoy served as chairman of a land use and economic development meeting, during which officials took a preliminary vote on the hotel’s “aesthetic.”

If all goes according to plan, the hotel’s construction will begin in April. It would stand near the DMV and The Landing at Cannon Branch, a townhome development that’s being built.

Another hotel could be coming to Manassas in the future — one that may offer more than just rooms for visitors.

“If this hotel is successful, the same people who are building it have the rights to build a second one near this one, and that one may very well have convention space available, which is something the city has wanted for quite some time,” Lovejoy said.