Almost two years after purchasing the ex-Grove Hotel at East Burnside Street and Northwest Fourth Avenue, Naito Development is ready to start renovating the building.

Bob Naito and Eagle Point Hotel Partners in 2014 were chosen by the Portland Development Commission to develop the property after a previous development plan fizzled. Naito and his partners paid $630,000 for the 27,570-square-foot building.

Budgeted at about $30 million, the project to renovate the 109-year-old building will also include construction of a nine-story tower. Retail shops, restaurants and bars are planned for the ground floor.

Naito said building permits have been secured, and he signed a contract Friday afternoon with Howard S. Wright, a Balfour Beatty company, to oversee construction. Surround Architecture is in charge of the building design and New York-based Studio Tack will design the interior.

Work should begin in about a week, Naito said, and staging for the project will take place on the sidewalks of both East Burnside Street and Northwest Fourth Avenue.

Naito said earlier that he hopes the city is able to relocate the Right 2 Dream Too homeless camp, across the street from the hotel, by the time construction is complete in about 18 months.

Naito said he grew up in the neighborhood and remembers pulling hand trucks of boxes around when he worked at Import Plaza, his family’s business. His father, Bill Naito, was a business leader and philanthropist known for his work to preserve historic structures and revitalize downtown Portland.

“It’s great to be back in the old neighborhood and I think the Grove Hotel project is going to become a kind of icon in Old Town Chinatown,” Naito said. “And I think it’s going to be something that my dad, if he were around, would be proud of.”

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