Funds for a controversial hotel project in Cocoa Beach got the green light Tuesday from the Brevard County Commission, which voted to grant $30 million to Driftwood Capital for a nearly $400 million resort the company is developing.

Samir Patel, who owns three Brevard County hotels and is currently building another, says the business is in his blood. He has been around hotels all his life growing up in Merritt Island.

“We enjoy taking care of the guests, interacting with out-of-towners coming to our town," he said. "I grew up here."

Patel is one of dozens of local Cocoa Beach hoteliers who have been speaking out about the proposed Driftwood Westin Cocoa Beach Resort and Spa, which will replace the aging International Palms Resort, also owned by the company.

The project touted by the developers as a 502-room resort, hotel and conference center, with three swimming pools, retail shops, 120,000 square feet of conference space and an 800-space parking garage.

Patel said he’s not opposed to the hotel itself, just the $30 million grant that county commissioners voted 3 to 1 in favor of Tuesday.

The funds will be used for marketing the hotel, and will be disbursed at the rate of $1 million per year over 30 years.

“In order to say you have a 30-year marketing plan, that’s impossible,” Patel said. “What’s good today is not good thirty years from now. I’ve never heard of a 30-year plan. It’s got to be on an annual basis.”

Patel said he and the others are concerned the new hotel will take away their business, but Driftwood representatives say that’s not the case.

Company officials say the 4-and-a-half star resort will charge high rates — which will allow the other hotels to charge more — and will pay more tourism taxes to the Brevard County Tourist Development Council.

“By them being able to raise their rates, by them having more business because we are going to have spillover, they are also going to be generating more taxes,” said Driftwood Capitol CEO Carlos Rodriguez.

Patel’s newest hotel is taking some five years to come to fruition in a time of soaring construction and material costs. He said that if the county approves a grant for Driftwood, local hoteliers like himself should have the same opportunity.

“There can’t be a class system where it comes to just the four-and-a-half stars,” he said. “It needs to be an even playing field for all types, because we are all corporate developers.”

​​Driftwood representatives said the resort will create some 1,300 jobs within five years, and will bring in more than $3 million in tourism tax revenues each year.