NATCHEZ &045; A group that has developed hotels in New Orleans is interested in building a three- to four-story convention center hotel in Natchez, City Attorney Walter Brown said Tuesday.

Although Brown said the city would like to see a 125-room hotel developed, he said it is too early to give the developers’ name, specifics of this proposal or names or details of their other projects.

&uot;But we (city officials) are going to go down to New Orleans to look at their other hotels,&uot; Brown said, adding that a date has not yet been set for the trip.

In mid-January, Tourism Director Walter Tipton mentioned that interest in locating a hotel across Canal Street from the Convention Center picked up after the start of the new tax year Jan. 1.

Tipton said two parties were seriously considering building such a hotel. He also said 12 groups, including the Mississippi Association of Supervisors and the Mississippi Tourism Association, have said they’ll seriously consider Natchez as a convention location, but only if such a hotel is in place, insuring they’ll have enough rooms.

On Tuesday, Brown said he plans to discuss the current hotel proposal more with Mayor Phillip West and aldermen as soon as the board meets again.

Tuesday’s aldermen meeting was recessed and will be reconvened as soon as possible to discuss personnel and economic development matters, although West would not give specifics of the items to be discussed.

Under state law, personnel and economic development are among items that can be discussed in executive session, or behind closed doors. As of Tuesday, aldermen and West had not agreed on a time and date to reconvene.