After clearing years of bureaucratic red tape, the first hotel is finally going up in Shiprock, New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation.

The tribe approved the lease for the 69,000-square-foot Best Western in about six months. But the paperwork sat at the Bureau of Indian Affairs for about three and a half years, owner Floyd Kurley said.

With everything out of the way, Kurley is moving forward with the facility, which will include restaurant, a swimming pool, a gift shop and a coffee shop. Construction will create as many as 1,000 jobs and 100 will be hired once the hotel opens.

The Shiprock Chapter is seeing other development, including an apartment complex that broke ground a few weeks ago.

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Shiprock breaks ground on first hotel (The Farmington Daily Times 8/2)