Seven years ago, the city of Miami approved plans for Brickell Vue Phase II, a 29-story 277-unit apartment building that was to be constructed at 30 Southwest 12th Street.

Times have changed and so have the owners. The new developer, Brickell Hotel Group LLP, has something different in mind for the land: a 15-story Hampton Inn & Suites hotel with 221 rooms, 8,870 square feet of restaurant space and 1,775 square feet of retail space.

Those plans got the nod from the Planning Advisory Board during a meeting Wednesday, though they’ll still need to be approved by the Zoning Board and the Miami City Commission.

“We’re moving it along. It’s a process,” said Bernard Wolfson, the site’s landowner and the president of Brickell Hotel Group. “You go from one step to the other.”

Wolfson’s first step was buying the land. According to the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser, Wolfson closed on the property for $6 million in December 2007.

In the months that followed, Wolfson began planning his project. Adrienne Pardo, Wolfson’s land-use attorney at Greenberg Traurig, said the hotel will be an affordable alternative to Brickell resorts.

The project’s approval came with conditions. The 212-space parking garage has to be “screened from the sight of adjacent properties.” Shaded trees will also have to be planted along the building’s façade.

Wolfson said he still hasn’t calculated how much it will cost to build Hampton Inn & Suites, but he hopes to break ground on it in early 2009.