Langtree at the Lake, the $2 billion mixed-use community at Lake Norman, plans to add a 14-story building that will include retail, commercial and residential floors and a 150- to 170-room full-service hotel, the project’s developer told business leaders on Friday.

The 350,000-square-foot building, to be called the EthoSphere, will be the tallest on the Interstate 77 corridor from northern Mecklenburg to Virginia, said Steve Welly, president and CEO of Ohio-based R.L. West Properties. The full-service hotel, located off Interstate 77’s Exit 31, would be the first in the lake region, local business leaders said.

The $80 million-$90 million building also will include 12,000 square feet of adjoining meeting space that could hold about 1,000 people, Welly said.

Lake Norman business leaders have tried for years to attract more meeting space, given the presence of such large employers as Lowe’s Companies, whose national headquarters also is off Exit 31, and Ingersoll Rand’s Davidson-based North American headquarters.

Bill Russell, president and CEO of the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce, said after Friday’s meeting that the lake region needs much more meeting space and that he’ll urge Langtree to consider providing 20,000 or more square feet.

Welly said he is working with 15 major hotel companies to land the EthoSphere’s full-service hotel. He said the EthoSphere has no financing but that he’s confident it will. “We have no debt on the land,” Welly said. “All of our infrastructure we paid for with cash – $10 million.”

R.L. West will seek LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for the EthoSphere from the U.S. Green Building Council, Welly said. He said he hopes the building will be under construction by about this time next year.

R.L. West would have to receive a variance from the Mooresville Zoning Board of Adjustment, because town zoning laws limit the height of buildings to 10 stories.

Welly said 850,000 square feet of retail/apartment space is under construction at Langtree, which will be built on 300 acres over the next decade. Five-story buildings will include retail on the first floor and four stories of Class A apartments that will have such features as granite countertops and hardwood floors, he said. R.L. West is building 300 luxury apartments in the first phase.

R.L. West’s Langtree Development Co. secured $41 million in financing to start the project. Work can be seen from Interstate 77, including towers for elevators and stairs for planned apartment/retail buildings.

In June, Langtree named 14 restaurants and other businesses that plan to locate in the development, which also will have a detention pond with a 12-foot waterfall. The list of restaurants includes a Boneheads Restaurant, Wild Wing Cafe and a “high-end” Italian restaurant being opened by the owner of Egg at Davidson. Other named tenants include two pizzerias, a martini bar, a cocktail lounge, an Asian restaurant, an ice cream shop and a coffee house.

Langtree’s original partners included local developers Rick Howard and his son, Brad, and local lawyer David Parker, chairman of the N.C. Democratic Party.