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SUFFOLK - City officials have tapped a developer to build a $45 million to $50 million project combining condos, offices, restaurants and a movie theater on the site of the former Obici Hospital near downtown.

The 22-acre development, called Obici Place, will be modeled after Port Warwick in Newport News and New Town in Williamsburg, said Tony Smith, senior vice president of Robinson Development Group.

The project is the latest in a flurry of mixed-use developments announced for Suffolk since the City Council adopted a mixed-use ordinance in late 2005.

Construction on the Obici project is slated to begin late this year and be finished by the end of 2007.

"I can't wait," Smith said. "I look at this site as a bridge between the high-growth corridor around Route 10 and the downtown."

Robinson Development Group beat out proposals from two other development companies.

The former Obici Hospital was torn down in 2003 after several offers to purchase the building fell through. The site, which backs up to wetlands and eventually the Nansemond River, is vacant except for a water tower and some parking lots.

Robinson Development Group has agreed to pay the city $4.5 million for the property, the same amount the city paid for the land in 2005, City Manager Steve Herbert said. The city bought the property to control what happened to it.

Now that city officials have picked Robinson, the two parties will begin final negotiations, which could lead to a development agreement within 30 days, Herbert said.

The plan is for Obici Place to have 200 to 225 apartments and condos, 120,000 square feet of retail and office space, restaurants and a 12-screen movie theater, Smith said.

The city's only other movie theater is more than 10 miles away in the Harbour View area of northern Suffolk.

Smith said he expects to attract speciality shops and regional and national chains in Obici Place. Tenants will be pursued after the development agreement is final, Smith said.

Robinson Development Group's other projects include a downtown Norfolk skyscraper - 150 West Main - and Battlefield Corporate Center in Chesapeake.

Robinson also is working on a $15 million, 60-unit upscale condo complex off West Constance Road, near downtown Suffolk.

City officials picked Robinson to develop the Obici site over proposals from Bruce Smith Enterprises LLC, which had teamed with Armada Hoffler, and HL Development, part of Harvey Lindsay Commercial Real Estate.

Smith predicted the project would complement the Hilton Garden Inn and Suffolk Conference Center that opened last year downtown.

"We have a lot of visitors looking for things to do," he said.