CARRBORO - Work crews could break ground on the redevelopment of 300 East Main as early as this summer, said Laura Van Sant, representing Main Street Partners LLC.

"I think I can say with, not 100 percent certainty, but we're pretty certain that we'll get started this summer," she said.

Atma Hotel Group, which will own and manage the Hampton Inn & Suites Hotel on the eastern side of the property, has advanced its plans since the town signed a parking lease in March for 150 daytime and 250 nighttime spaces in the new parking deck, she said. The deal was struck in part to help jumpstart the project, which has been stalled by the economy, town leaders said.

The town will pay an amount equal to 3 percent of the hotel's annual gross receipts up to $90,000 annually for five years to secure the free public parking. After that, the spaces will be metered. Drivers will access the parking deck via a road from the intersection of Lloyd and Main streets and later from an extension of Boyd Street. It will be built in two phases for a final total of 850 spaces.

The roughly $60 million to $70 million, 5.24-acre proposal calls for five four- and five-story buildings providing roughly 507,500 square feet of retail, residential and office space.

The first construction phase will take at least 12 to 18 months. It will replace the Furniture Follies building at 404 E. Main St. and a few houses with the parking deck and hotel. There will be retail space on the hotel's ground floor. Some site work on the eastern portion might be completed in the first phase, too, architect Jim Spencer said.

Van Sant and Spencer presented the parking deck's final elevation drawings to the aldermen last month. The cursory review was required for the conditional use permit, although the final decision lies with the Appearance Commission.

The land-use ordinance that gave the commission approval has since been modified so the aldermen will have final approval of the architectural drawings for two future buildings.

Spencer said the parking deck will be built from precast concrete sections with a brick facade. A stairwell and an elevator tower would be located in the northwestern corner of the deck. The open stairwell - to give pedestrians a feeling of security and an overview of the project's layout - would be protected from the elements by a slanted overhang, Spencer said.

"We think it's going to be a really good solution," he said. "It's going to be both good-looking and economical. It will take very little time to build."

The aldermen had few comments about the plan. Alderwoman Jacquie Gist wondered if the parking deck was five stories or six. Spencer confirmed it was five stories, but spaces on the roof will provide six levels of parking. The parking deck and the hotel will be about 58 feet tall, he said, about half the height of the nearby Greenbridge building.

"For a parking deck, it looks pretty darn good," Gist said later.

The development will raise the property's value from $1.1 million to $21 million, for roughly $117,000 in additional annual tax revenue.

Town officials are considering a room-occupancy tax, as well. The General Assembly gave the town authority to add a 3 percent tax to its charter in 2001 on the first $500,000 in receipts and 1 percent on anything above that. If the 144-room hotel maintains 68 percent occupancy at $90 a room per night, the town would collect about $95,000 a year.

The town would have to form a Carrboro Tourism Development Authority to handle the additional money. Two-thirds would be used to promote local travel and tourism, while the remainder would pay tourism-related expenses, including capital improvements.