Butler is not alone in Western Pennsylvania as a community that hopes a hotel can boost its downtown.

Altoona has a proposed 83-room, four-floor Wingate hotel in it that is expected to be completed in August 2016.

It will be the first hotel in that downtown since the 1980s.

Lee Slusser, the director of planning and community development for Altoona, said, “For years people would come into town for something but would then leave to stay in a hotel.”

He said the UPMC Hospital there and Penn State’s branch campus are driving the need for the hotel.

Butler officials hope the Centre City project — which includes a proposed Marriott Springhill Suites hotel, a 239-space parking garage and a completed Rite Aid pharmacy — will kick-start development downtown.

A groundbreaking for the hotel in Butler, which is being built in a public-private partnership, is nearing, according to its developer.

Paul Dunn, project manager with J.S. Capitol Construction, said he expects to present plans and renderings of the structure this month to city council for comments.

“We’re probably two or three weeks away from getting our building permit,” Dunn said, adding the groundbreaking of the hotel is expected this summer.

The city redevelopment authority will own 36 percent of the hotel’s stake, while J.S. Capitol will own the rest.

The hotel in Altoona will be built by a private developer.

Slusser said he expects construction on the Altoona hotel to begin this fall or winter.