PORTLAND — The troubled Columbia Gorge Hotel may have found a buyer after it closed last January.

Vijay Patel, who owns a small chain of hotels in Eastern Oregon and Washington, told The Oregonian he will buy the historic hotel for more than $4 million.

Once called the “Waldorf of the West” after it was built in 1921 by timber tycoon Simon Benson, the hotel sits atop property that overlooks the Columbia River from a picturesque bluff.

Patel, 53, said the purchase will be made by a subsidiary of his A-1 Hospitality Group.

The hotel is currently owned by ShoreBank Pacific, based in Ilwaco, Wash. The bank has used a management company to operate the hotel after foreclosing and now will become Pater’s lender.

Patel, born in Uganda and educated in India, told the Portland newspaper he plans to restore the historic property to its former grandeur while installing amenities such as plasma televisions.

“I am really proud to own a property like this,” Patel said. “We will prove that the bank picked the right company.”

Patel, who once rode a motorcycle through Africa for 11 months, is taking on a challenge that other hoteliers have ducked.

No one bid at a July foreclosure auction offering the hotel for cash. Potential purchasers have been wary of high operating costs for a property that has only about 40 revenue-generating rooms.

About 130 employees lost their jobs when the previous owners closed it Jan. 30.

Patel first visited the property on a sunny day last winter after the hotel had closed. “I think it just needs the right management and the right operations and it can be a very successful hotel,” Patel said.

He and his business partner, Rakesh Malhan, president of NS Construction Group Inc., plan to close on the property Oct. 30.

Patel and his wife, Mita, founded their hotel company in 1997 and bought the old Longhorn Hotel in Pendleton, renovating it into a Travelodge. They went on to acquire the Holiday Inn Express in Pendleton.

A-1 Hospitality also owns the Holiday Inn Express in Pasco, Americas Best Value Inn in Pendleton and the Fairfield Inn in Kennewick. It plans further expansion in The Dalles and other Northwest cities.