REDMOND — For more than a decade, fans concerned about the underutilization of the 86-year-old New Redmond Hotel and its prominent downtown location have spoken the same mantra: “If only McMenamins would buy it.”

While Mark and Leisa Bates aren’t the hospitality gods that Brian McMenamin and Mike McMenamin are, they’re pretty close — the McMenamins, who own and operate a variety of restaurants, brewpubs, hotels and movie theaters around Oregon and Washington, are longtime friends who purchased a tavern from the Bates. Now the Bates are purchasing the New Redmond Hotel.

“We intend to make the hotel a destination,” said Mark Bates, 56. “We want to be respectful of the era it was built in the way the McMenamins do, but our style is less bohemian.”

The Bates own The Orenco, a boutique hotel near Hillsboro. With a rowhouse facade and sleek modern design inside, the hotel consistently ranks high in online reviews. Bates, who was born in England but has spent most of his life in the U.S., said he and his wife were inspired to build the vintage-looking establishment eight years ago after they noticed Victorian rowhouses converted into a Holiday Inn during a visit to England.

“I love history, so the Redmond Hotel seems perfect for us,” Bates said. “And having that gaping hole downtown made no sense.”

The Bates, who also have a marketing company, expect the sale to close soon and hope to reopen the hotel by next spring. No current tenants will be displaced, Bates said. He declined to give the sale price, but 18 months ago co-owner Brad Evert had the hotel on the market for $2.7 million. The city is considering the couple’s hotel redevelopment project for its Jumpstart Loan Program, which comes with a $1 public money match for every $4 in private funding — up to $500,000 — for projects expected to provide a catalyst for economic growth downtown. The approval process is not complete but, if approved, the loan has the potential to be forgiven if all criteria is met.

According to Heather Richards, community development director, it’s early in the application process. The city has asked the Bates for more information and, once received, the city will begin an extensive underwriting process to measure the likelihood of success for the project.

“The committee that reviewed the application is excited about the project, it’s gotten a good response overall but it’s a lot of money and the city takes its responsibility to taxpayers seriously,” she said.

“I’m not sure if we would have done this without the loan program,” Bates said. “While we’ve always planned to retire to Central Oregon, we weren’t planning on buying a hotel. The loan program is very attractive because it’s hard getting a loan for an empty unused hotel.”

The second and third floors of the New Redmond Hotel have 48 rooms that have been primarily empty for 10 years. The ground floor has retail, office and restaurant space, all of which are leased.

The hotel was dubbed “New Redmond Hotel” because it replaced a wooden predecessor that burned down in 1927. The 43,000-square-foot structure has been a dominant feature of Redmond’s downtown for generations, offering apartments, hotel rooms, banquet space, a billiard hall, shops and restaurants.

The New Redmond Hotel is significantly larger than The Orenco, but that doesn’t worry Bates.

“Whether it’s 14 or 400 rooms, it’s the same: Set standards and keep them up, establish operating procedures and make sure staff understands your requirements,” he said. “The key is to make it so flippin’ cool that people walk out and can’t wait to tell their friends.”

It’s too early to say exactly what changes the Bates will make to the hotel, outside of an upgraded HVAC system and repairs to its vast inventory of windows. But a few ideas are already being tossed around, including a rooftop bar and possibly a soaking pool in the basement.

The rooms themselves are in decent shape, Bates said, but everything needs upgrading, including many vintage architectural features. Luckily, their ties to the McMenamins and past projects have given the couple a long list of architects, engineers and restoration experts accustomed to historical buildings.

Whether the hotel will be marketed primarily to the business or leisure traveler remains to be seen, Bates said, as they “roll around in the data” and analyze the best uses for the building, which he considers Redmond’s living room.

“Positioning, voice, performance, marketing — that’s what all hotels need, and everything we do in our marketing business for hundreds of hotels we can use for our own,” he said. “Having the hotel be empty has made it like a home with a big hole in the middle of it.”

— Reporter: 541-548-2186, lpugmire@bendbulletin.com