With the Music City Center convention facility two-thirds completed, interest among hotel operators continues to gain momentum — and not surprisingly.

Now a brand that is new to the recent speculation and conversation has surfaced: Choice Hotels International.

Bob Hickman, an office/industrial broker with the Nashville office of Grubb & Ellis/Centennial, said he has "looked at several downtown sites," including those in SoBro, for the Maryland-based Choice Hotels chain.

Asked if one of the sites is the surface parking lot located between Sixth and Seventh avenues and owned by First Baptist Church, Hickman said preliminary discussions have taken place. He declined to comment further regarding the church site, which First Baptist officials recently announced is slated for future redevelopment. In the past, church officials have acknowledged they have talked to various commerical real estate brokers and developers looking to place a hotel on their site.

Choice Hotels, with about 6,000 hotels worldwide, has brands that include Comfort Inn, Econo Lodge, Rodeway Inn and Sleep Inn.

Hendersonville-based Smith Travel Research has added to its relationship with the Choice Hotels chain and will soon begin rolling out its benchmarking datas to Choice properties in Europe, Central and South America and Australasia.