BUTLER TWP — Jay Bandaru is pleased to be opening his first hotel in his home county.

Bandaru of Buffalo Township is president of V&S Management, which is a family company that owns six hotels with two more under construction.

The ceremonial ground breaking of the Holiday Inn Express on Wednesday marked the start of V&S Management’s first Butler County venture. The hotel is expected to be open by spring.

The ceremony was pushed into the township municipal building by the rain.

The plan is for a four-story, 80-room hotel that will have an indoor swimming pool, a fitness area and breakfast area. It will not have a restaurant or bar.

Planned for a 2 1/4 acre lot fronting North Duffy Road, the hotel will be one of the last pieces to the Butler Commons/Butler Crossing complex.

Bandaru said that both the name brand of the hotel chain and the location were the draws for his company.

“This is where things happened in the past, and this is where they will happen in the future,” Bandaru said.