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The partners behind the Society Hotel renovation are bullish on the market opportunity for their project, but wonder whether the neighborhood can support a couple of others too.

An advisory committee for the Portland Development Commission is expected to soon present its preferred choice of five development proposals for the Grove Hotel property in Old Town Chinatown. Aaron Jones and Don Mutal are proposing mixed uses, including market-rate apartments; Beam Development and Urban Development Partners are suggesting a combination of creative office and retail space; three other finalists are proposing hostel-oriented hospitality concepts.

Also, Jessie Burke, one of the Society Hotel project partners, said plans still exist to create a hotel out of the old Harlow Block building, across from the 511 Federal Building on the North Park Blocks.

“While we’re psyched about our project, we’re only creating like six jobs, and we’re bringing in transient guests,” she said. “So tripling that effort seems silly if we have an opportunity to start working toward one or two of our major issues.”

Burke said those include job creation and addition of workforce housing in Old Town Chinatown. Both objectives are identified in the city’s five-year action plan for the neighborhood, but Burke and her colleagues are worried that the Grove Hotel could become a missed opportunity.

“As much as our project will bring a lot of foot traffic to the neighborhood, it doesn’t ultimately create a lot of jobs,” project partner Matt Siegel said. “Ultimately, for the neighborhood we need … people who live here with jobs who can spend money in the district, and help create a vibrant, balanced neighborhood. We also don’t know, ultimately, what the total appetite for this kind of accommodation is in Portland.”

But PDC spokesman Shawn Uhlman said the hostel concepts proposed for the Grove Hotel are different from the one planned for the Society Hotel. He said they should be able to coexist, regardless of the proposal chosen by the committee.

“According to the independent market study that was prepared, there’s more than enough demand for both projects to move forward,” he said.