A historic Northwest Portland building is getting a face-lift and a new lease on life.

Ganesh Sonpatki, owner of the 133-year-old Harlow Block at 722-738 N.W. Glisan St., in 2012 announced plans to renovate and reopen the long-vacant building as a hotel.

Sonpatki in 2008 purchased the building for $950,000, according to city data. In 2009, Portland-based architect Stan Chesshir applied to the Bureau of Development Services for a commercial building permit to renovate the upper floors and remodel the ground floor to accommodate a restaurant. Sonpatki put renovation plans on hold in the face of a down economy; however, after purchasing and renovating the Downtown Value Inn near Portland State University, he decided to move forward with the Harlow Block project.

“The delay was partly because of the economy, but also there was a seismic component,” he said. “In a building that age you can do a certain amount of renovation without triggering a seismic upgrade, and with the economy improving we decided just to go in and do it all at once.”

When work wraps up, the hotel will have 25 rooms – each with its own bathroom. Sonpatki said rooms will run between $60 and $120 per night.

“I think the best thing is that, price-wise, I don’t see a lot of affordable alternatives for hotel rooms in Northwest Portland,” he said. “So people are stuck staying farther out or have to split the cost of a room to afford it. This is a price point people can afford.”

Sonpatki predicts construction to cost about $2.5 million. He expects to open for business in summer 2015. Contractors have already begun demolishing parts of the building and installing steel rebar to support poured concrete.

“They’ll basically build a cement structure inside,” Sonpatki said. “That way, if there’s an earthquake and the bricks start collapsing, the walls will stay intact.”

Sonpatki owns several other Portland-area properties, including the Banfield Value Inn in the Hollywood District, Briarwood Suites in Southeast Portland and the Peppertree Inn in Beaverton. He’s in negotiations to purchase the Astoria Riverwalk Inn and the adjacent Seafare Restaurant & Lounge.

Although Sonpatki has chosen to partner with national hotel chains for some of his projects, he said he’s planning on running the Harlow Block one – which he hasn’t yet named – independently.

Plans for the Harlow Block building renovation show ground-floor space for two 700-square-foot retail spaces, a 700-square-foot hotel lobby and 1,500 square feet of restaurant space.

“I’m planning on opening the restaurant myself or finding a partner who’s looking for space,” Sonpatki said. “I’m looking at having American cuisine with a Northwest flavor and some sort of a bar component.”

The building has no designated parking area, but Sonpatki is looking at contracting local lots to accommodate hotel guests’ vehicles. He also is hoping that the building’s proximity to light rail and bus service will lessen the need for parking.

The Harlow Block was built in 1882 by Capt. John Harlow, an entrepreneur who founded Troutdale. He built the hotel near the planned transcontinental railroad station, but died a year after the building opened for business. Harlow’s widow, Celeste Harlow, retained ownership and managed the property until 1902.

When Celeste Harlow sold the building, the new owners renamed it Park Hotel. In 1907, the structure was sold again and became the Muckle Building. In 1980 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

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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.

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A local hotelier is looking to revive a historic hotel in downtown Portland.

Ganesh Sonpatki, the private owner of several economy hotels in Portland, is planning to renovate and re-open the long vacant Harlow Block building, at 722-738 N.W. Glisan St., as a mid-ranged priced hotel. With its opening, Sonpatki will become the latest in a long line of hoteliers at the site.

The Harlow Block was built in 1882 for entrepreneur and city of Troutdale founder Capt. John Harlow. Harlow was originally a sea captain from Maine who came to Oregon by accident in 1849 when he landed in San Francisco and his crew jumped ship to join the California Gold Rush.

Harlow had to sell his ship but ended up becoming a successful steamboat operator. Eventually he made his way up to Oregon where he established a country farm he called “Troutdale” because of the fish ponds he built on the property.

Harlow built the hotel in downtown Portland hoping to capitalize on the coming transcontinental railroad station just blocks away. He was a bit ahead of his time in his plan to include retail shop space on the ground floor of the building. Unfortunately for him, he died a year after the building’s opening from a random illness and his wife, Celeste Harlow, managed the property for many years.

In 1902, Celeste sold the building, and its name was changed to the Park Hotel. In 1907, it sold again and became the Muckle Building. The building struggled through the first part of the 20^th century as it scrambled to incorporate amenities like electricity and central heating, and went through several more iterations throughout the 20^th century. By the 1970s, it had become fairly worn down.

Despite being neglected, the Harlow Block has an attractive façade that features a restrained Italianate style with old, red brick masonry and arcuated fenestration. Sonpatki bought the building in 2008 with plans to renovate it, but the crashing economy delayed the project. A few years ago, however, he renovated the Downtown Value Inn near Portland State University and said the success of that project clearly indicated the economy was coming around.

“It’s been good,” Sonpatki said. “It could always be better with the economy that we have built. We’re definitely getting a lot of tourists coming in … but it’s been good and that’s what we’re trying to replicate over here.”

Sonpatki’s other hotels include the Briarwood Suites at Southeast 77^th and Powell and the Banfield Value Inn at Northeast 37^th and Sandy Boulevard.

A big challenge for the renovation will be modernizing the building without triggering a seismic upgrade, which wouldn’t be economically feasible as a mid-ranged hotel. Sonpatki said he originally had approval from Best Western to fly that banner at the Harlow Block but the company wanted some changes made that would have triggered seismic improvements.

“It’s hard to put a whole bunch of money into a building that small, especially with our focus not being on the high-end market,” Sonpatki said. “The plan is to make it as safe as possible but as lean as possible.”

Sonpatki is currently going through permitting for the project.

And with the Pacific Northwest College of Art’s coming renovation of the former federal post office, at 511 N.W. Broadway, just across the street and the soon-to-be construction of a new dormitory for PNCA a couple blocks away, the area around the Harlow Block is certainly primed for activity.

“It’s a great location just from the standpoint of being in the Pearl district,” Sonpatki said, “and in terms of not having a lot of hotels out there.”

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