A hotel developer is set to break ground by year’s end on a five-story Marriott Courtyard hotel in Redwood City — the city’s first hotel since the dot-come bust. The hotel would cater to business travelers at companies such as DreamWorks, Oracle and Facebook.

A South Carolina company, OTO Development, has applied for a building permit to begin construction on the 177-room hotel and attached parking garage before the end of the year, said Associate City Planner Sailesh Mehra.

The 2.8-acre project is to be completed 18 months after construction starts and will be part of the remaking of a rundown section of Redwood City fronting northbound U.S. 101.

OTO Development’s Real Estate Manager Steve Pieters told planning commissioners in June that his company targets corporate travelers in major business centers such as New York, Boston and the Bay Area. In Redwood City, he said, “Most likely (daily) users would be businesses like DreamWorks, Oracle and Facebook.”

The One Marina Hotel is positioned to fill a service gap for business travelers on 101 between East Palo Alto in the south and state Highway 92 in San Mateo to the north, Mehra said.

OTO anticipates sturdy demand growth, Pieters said, citing Jay Paul Co.’s Harbor View, where the San Francisco developer is proposing more than a million square feet of offices immediately to the hotel’s south. He also cited increased demand from Stanford University’s expansion of its Redwood City office, research and development, and medical-clinic campus.

OTO gained unanimous planning commission support to build the Courtyard by Marriott in east Redwood City as the final element in a 33-acre planned waterfront community that was entitled on the eve of the financial crisis in 2007 and 2008.

Besides the hotel, the One Marina community incorporates nearly 250 townhomes, currently under construction, as well as public parks and multiple boat slips in a 14-acre marina. The development is one component of the wholesale remake of Redwood City land east of 101 away from more industrial uses.

The “Courtyard” brand aims to appeal to value- and amenity-conscious business travelers with free Wi-Fi in lobbies and guestrooms. Average daily room rates are $124, according to the Marriott website. The 188,000-square-foot Redwood City property includ es a restaurant, bar and lounge; a coffee shop and a thousand square feet of meeting space.

Up to 80 percent of hotel guests depart for the business day, freeing amenities for surrounding businesses, workers and the larger community then and on the weekends, Pieters said.

“It is kind of a big deal, especially being so prominent right on 101,” said Redwood City’s Mehra.