[MarkDaMan]

The 130-year-old Harlow Block building, located at 922-738 N.W. Glisan St., is set to be renovated and re-opened as a hotel. (Photo by Sam Tenney/DJC)

Hotel to reclaim historic site in North Park Blocks
POSTED: Monday, July 23, 2012 at 02:48 PM PT
BY: Lee Fehrenbacher
Daily Journal of Commerce

http://djcoregon.com/news/2012/07/23...h-park-blocks/

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 19th century as it scrambled to incorporate amenities like electricity and central heating, and went through several more iterations throughout the 19th 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 77th and Powell and the Banfield Value Inn at Northeast 37th 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.”