ZELIENOPLE — The waiting game continues for the restoration of the Kaufman House.

Jack Cohen, president of the Butler County Tourism Foundation, said the foundation is seeking a third grant from Growing Greener to help fund the project.

“When that’s done, we’ll know when it gets going,” Cohen said. “We’re ready.”

The project is funded by state grants worth $780,000 and $500,000, respectively.

The amount the foundation is seeking from the third grant is not known.

“We’ve got our fingers crossed,” Cohen said.

The hotel and restaurant’s reopening, part of the borough’s ongoing revitalization project, is expected to occur in 2017.

Cohen said while the target date is “getting a little late” for next spring, the project is “still on track.”

“I still think we can do it,” Cohen said about the spring target date. “If it’s delayed longer, we’ll probably have to go to summer.”

Construction will begin once the grants are approved by the state.

Bids were delayed for about a week in May because the grants were signed by the state later than expected.

The project also needed approval from the state before contracts could be issued.

The hotel portion of the project is expected to cost $2.3 million to $2.5 million. Renovations to be done include electric, plumbing, air conditioning and interior and exterior work.

Eighteen guest rooms are expected to be restored, about 12 fewer than before. The hotel portion has not been used since the 1970s.

The Kaufman House was built in 1902. A kitchen fire closed the entire building in 2011.

A new municipal parking lot, also part of the revitalization project, is being constructed behind the building and improvements will be made to Main Street.

The building will provide internship opportunities for culinary arts and hospitality management students from Butler County Community College.

Community members also will have an opportunity to invest in the restoration project by sponsoring certain areas of the hotel as part of the Kaufman House Community Connection Campaign.

Cohen said the campaign has a few sponsors. “Like everyone else, we’ll have to wait to push it further,” he said. “Once we start the construction, I think it will go a lot farther and faster.”