Campus partner University Hospitality Group has been given a green light to break ground on a hotel and conference center after a superior court judge last week sided with the university on a second lawsuit filed against the project.

The facility is planned on a 5-acre parcel across from Mondavi Center, next to the alumni and visitors center. John Yates, director of real estate services, said the developers expect to begin construction on the building this fall and to complete it in late 2005 or early 2006.

The $22 million project includes a 75,000-square-foot, three-story conference center with a grand ballroom, restaurant and pub and 75-room hotel.

The project was proposed to provide the university with expanded opportunities to host national and international academic conferences and regional business events.

It has the endorsement of the Davis Area Chamber of Commerce, the Davis Downtown Business Association and local hotel owners, and the support of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors.

The project was originally slated to begin construction in the summer of 2003 and to be finished in late 2004 but has been held up by legal challenges.

In the most recent of these, Alameda Superior Court Judge James Richman on April 28 threw out a lawsuit filed by a Davis resident that claimed the campus would be entering into an illegal agreement since it planned to lease back office space within the building from the developer -- University Hospitality Group -- that will build and operate the hotel and conference center.

Richman said the lease agreement did not constitute an illegal subsidy. He also rejected the lawsuit's claim that the project should have been put out to bid a second time after an initial developer dropped out of the project and design plans changed.

During the litigation, campus officials continued to meet with leaders from the city of Davis about the proposed facility and how to best connect it and Mondavi Center with downtown Davis. The litigation delayed the project about three months, Yates estimated.

It is the second lawsuit the facility has faced. In 2002, a Davis business owner challenged the project on the grounds that it would drain business from Davis' downtown, creating blight. In late 2002, the courts also rejected that argument.

Principals of University Hospitality Group are B.B. Patel and Ashok Patel, who own and operate other hotel and conference center properties in Northern California including the University Park Inn, Aggie Inn and Best Western Palm Court in Davis.