NATCHEZ — The proposed new hotel in Natchez and the hotel project slated for the Vidalia Riverfront are, in fact, one and the same.

The Desai Hotel Group leased 3.7 acres on the Vidalia Riverfront in July 2014 for the development of a hotel, lounge, restaurant and small retail facility. The lease calls for annual rent payments of $33,000 an acre for five years for the right to use the land for 99 years.

The company has a second, three-acre lease on the Vidalia Riverfront that was approved in February 2014 that was slated to be a 90-room TownePlace Suites by Marriott.

The land is located near Promise Hospital on the southern end of the Riverfront district.

But Desai Hotel Group President Sunny Desai said Wednesday the company will have to make a decision in the next couple of weeks if it will locate a new hotel in Vidalia or in Natchez.

“We had some unforeseen construction cost issues come up with the Vidalia site, so we were looking at our options of potentially moving it back to Natchez,” Desai said. “Right now, we are just weighing our options, seeing what makes sense for the deal. The hotel is going to come, we are just trying to decide where.”

The construction costs, Desai said, had to do with the soil on the Vidalia Riverfront.

“Being so close to the (Mississippi River), our engineers are saying it is going to require a lot more work to make the hotel stable,” he said. “We expected a little bit (of soil issues), but not as much as the structural engineer came out with the requirements to mediate the soil movement. It is an interesting situation.”

The potential site in Natchez is located next to the Holiday Inn Express, which the Desai group already operates.

Desai said the company already owns the land the hotel will be built on if it is located in Natchez. The site is near South Canal Street.

The potential of the Natchez location of the hotel first became public when Mayor Butch Brown asked the Natchez Board of Aldermen to support the the location of the board, saying the company was seeking a Tax-Increment Financing bond from the city.

TIF bonds are used to build infrastructure for economic development projects using the project’s future property tax revenues as financing.

Desai said his company is asking for the TIF commitment because Vidalia has given it one.

“This is all based on our (ultimate costs),” Desai said. “Anyone can get it built (on the Riverfront), but is it going to make sense for us? If I can get the same hotel built next to my current hotel and I can get the same incentives from the city, it would make sense to save money on construction and move it.”

Desai said the decision will be made soon because he understands Vidalia has other parties interested in the property.

“The City of Vidalia has been really great to work with, and they have tried to work with us through every issue we have come across,” he said. “If they have other people in line, I am not going to hold them up from moving forward on their timeline. We have to decide sooner rather than later.”