City commissioners have narrowed their search for a downtown waterfront hotel developer to two finalists and will begin negotiations with both.

Only one project meets the city’s five-story height limit for buildings on Olive Avenue between Okeechobee Boulevard and Seventh Street. The developer of a proposed 12-story building says he will pay for a campaign to convince voters to give the site a height exemption.

The city’s choices are:

— The team of Navarro Lowery Properties of West Palm Beach, Hyatt Hotels and Concord Hospitality’s offer of up to $6 million for a five-story 260-room Hyatt hotel.

— The team of Crocker Group, Song + Associates and the Carlton Fields law firm’s offer of up to $15 million for a 12-story building with 200 hotel rooms operated by an undetermined hotelier, upscale rental apartments and lobby retail space.

In December, city officials released a poll showing that fewer than 40 percent of residents supported a hotel that exceeded the height limit. But at Monday’s special commission workshop, Tom Crocker, managing partner of The Crocker Group, said he will finance a campaign to convince voters to build high.

“At the end of the day, if you present something that makes economic sense and looks right, feels right in the city … , they’ll vote for the thing that’s best for them,” Crocker said. “That’s why we’d be willing to mount that campaign and spend the money to get it done — because we know we’d win.”

Frank Navarro, president of Navarro Lowery, continued to pitch his project as the most realistic, with a hotelier already lined up and the majority of the project focusing on the hotel and not a residential component that could take years to develop.

But commissioners and Mayor Jeri Muoio, who want a taller building that will generate more tax revenue for the city and stand out as a signature project, pushed Navarro to consider going taller than five stories once negotiations begin.

“Six, seven, eight stories, we could be OK with that,” Navarro said. “But we want it to be something that the public will get behind. I really don’t want to build a project that will be a lightning rod for a lot of controversy.”

During Crocker’s presentation, Commissioner Shanon Materio left the meeting with a concern over a potential ethics violation. Materio said she was surprised to learn Clint Glass was part of the Crocker group.

Glass is the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of Palm Beaches’ Political Action Committee which is deciding between endorsing Materio or Gregg Weiss in the March 12 commission race. He was part of a five-person team who interviewed Materio on Friday.

Materio said Glass asked her about a potential referendum and the old city hall site. City Attorney Claudia McKenna said that because Materio doesn’t have a financial relationship with Glass or Crocker, “you don’t have an issue here.”

But Materio said she wanted to err on the side of caution and will try to get an opinion from the county’s ethics commission before participating in discussions about the project.

“The reality is (Glass) did not identity himself as being on that team and I truly wish he had,” Materio said.

Glass after the meeting denied speaking about the old city hall site. He said he only asked a hypothetical question about CityPlace.