Signature Inns Inc.'s $40 million public offering isn't planned until later this fall, but already the Indianapolis hotel company has shifted expansion plans into high gear.

The 23-hotel company revealed in new regulatory filings that it purchased a hotel in Springfield, Ill., in August, is building a hotel in Nashville, Tenn., and has signed a letter of intent to buy a hotel in Louisville.

Signature has identified 23 cities in 14 states as potential new markets and plans to develop at least three new hotels a year.

The strategy was laid out in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing outlining plans to sell 3.3 million shares at about $12 each in a public offering that would land the ...