A HOTEL, retail and apartment complex with two five-story buildings has been approved for the Little Saigon area of Westminster.

Visitors to the planned Bolsa Row hotel and residential development in Westminster will be bearing much of the cost for the project in the Little Saigon area of the city.

According to Alexa Smittle, senior administrative analyst for the city, the developers will get some financial assistance totaling an estimated $16.1 million. The first $4.5 million will come from city coffers going to street improvements, traffic signals and other infrastructure in the area of Bolsa Avenue and Brookhurst Street.

The majority, $11.6 million, will come from a rebate of 65 percent of the transient occupancy tax – sometimes known as “bed tax” – paid by guests at the hotel for a period of 25 years.

Westminster’s TOT is 8 percent, lower than the rates in Anaheim and Garden Grove.

Bolsa Row, approved by the city council last month, will feature a four-star hotel and other businesses and homes in a French Colonial style. It’s planned to include a 144-room hotel, a 48,000-square foot banquet facility, 37,550 square feet of retail uses and 201 dwelling units.

A principal feature will be a Festival Street area with benches, landscaping and architecture intended to be reminiscent of “old Saigon.”