The Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Portland has delayed its opening for two months.

The hotel website had been booking reservations for stays beginning in mid-August. The website now says the Ritz-Carlton’s 250 rooms will not be available until Oct. 15.

Walt Bowen, the Portland developer leading the Ritz project, blamed the delay on the difficulty of obtaining certain construction materials.

“The postponement from the previously announced date was decided to ensure delivery of premium materials and finishes for an exceptional experience for guests,” Bowen said in a statement.

“We have been fortunate that the Block 216 project has seen very few delays over the last four years, but we are now experiencing some setbacks in the final stage of construction due to supply chain issues,” Bowen added. “We are working closely with Marriott to ensure that the final product is up to the highest standards before we open our doors to Portland.”

A two-month delay in a mammoth undertaking like the $600 million, 35-story Ritz-Carlton building is not unusual. But scrutiny of the ambitious project is intense as it comes to market at a difficult time in the city’s history. Bowen hopes to sell over-the-top luxury in a city struggling with crime, poverty and drugs.

It is not clear how the Ritz-Carlton will handle customers who had already made reservations for August and beyond.

As recently as mid-June, the August opening seemed locked in. “As previously announced, The Ritz-Carlton, Portland will open its doors on August 15th,” Bowen officials said in June 15 email exchange. Sales of the building’s 132 condos were to begin closing that day, the company said.

Bowen has persevered through an unprecedented series of setbacks, most of them out of his control. “Working with the ramifications of the pandemic and civil unrest during 2020 on timely procurement of labor and materials, shipping and delivery of materials, perception of the City’s safety and cleanliness were all unique material challenges which the development has needed to overcome,” the Bowen team said in the email.

Bowen, meanwhile, continues to sell off assets. Documents newly filed at the Multnomah County Recorder’s office show that BDC/2100 LLC, a Bowen company, sold a Riverplace office building for $13.6 million earlier this month.

Weston Development Co. purchased the Riverplace office building. It marks the entry of prominent real estate developer and investor Joe Weston into the Bowen drama.

Earlier this year, Bowen sold one of his last assisted living holdings — the Bend-based Alexander — for $56 million.

Bowen, who built a fortune in the assisted living business, became one of downtown Portland’s most active and successful developers in recent years. After two profitable office buildings in the Pearl District, he built the Broadway Tower, a mixed-use hotel and office building at Southwest Broadway and Southwest Clay Street.

Flush with that success, Bowen started work on the Ritz-Carlton building in 2019.