Construction is underway on a new boutique hotel in the Bywater, a neighborhood that has fought off several proposed hospitality projects in recent years amid concerns about the effects on local residents and their quality of life.

The Milky Way Motel, as the project will be called, is located on the site of a former auto yard at the corner of Feliciana Street and St. Claude Avenue — La. 46 — and will seek to evoke the glory days of the midcentury road trip, according to developer Kyle Resmondo.

The façade of the 17-room motel will feature a laser-cut, perforated stainless-steel cladding, intended to look like falling stars when lit from behind. Inside, it includes a swimming pool built out of a repurposed shipping container with a 32-square-foot window.

“We were striving to find someth

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