Developers unveiled updated plans Tuesday to build two large hotels (an Embassy Suites and a Courtyard Marriott), three restaurants and a spacious convention center at this northern Utah County city's so-called "$350 million intersection."

"This rivals anything in the state of Utah, even in Salt Lake [City]," Pleasant Grove Mayor Mike Daniels said. "This is a tremendous facility."

The project will be financed partly by one of the nation's largest hotel developers, John Q. Hammons, along with bonds financed through a Utah County hotel-tax hike and future property tax revenues from the development.

An investment and banking firm has projected the hotels and convention center would generate $51 million a year.

Hammons said Tuesday his Pleasant Grove project will offer 520 hotel rooms and more than 100,000 square feet of meeting space in a convention center with 28- to 30-foot ceilings.

The first leg of construction, the 14-story, 300-suite Embassy Suites Hotel, is scheduled to begin June 1, Hammons said. He expects construction to take 14 to 21 months, with an opening in October 2008.

The Courtyard Marriott is slated for a 2008 groundbreaking, followed by a 2009 debut.

Hammons said the project, which would boast 350 to 450 employees, is in a prime location - near Interstate 15 and Pleasant Grove Boulevard and not far from Brigham Young University and Utah Valley State College.

The hotel site also is adjacent to a planned 1 million-square-foot lifestyle center. That area would provide a mix of entertainment, restaurants and national and Utah retailers.

Dennis Baker, the property owner, said he has been talking with national real estate trusts, though he would not say who the anchor tenant might be.

Daniels, the Pleasant Grove mayor, pointed out the enhanced revenues would ease the tax burden on residents and create career jobs.

"I'm convinced, in the near future, Salt Lake will learn [Pleasant Grove] is a competitive force in the state," Hammons said.

sgehrke@sltrib.com