Almost two years have passed since the owner of a large parcel on the block south of Safeway on Auburn Way South first leveled several buildings there.

Not to open up a vista on lovely Mount Rainier, but to make way for a four-story, 90-room, 40,000-square-foot Hilton Hotel.

To the eye, not much has happened there since.

But, according to Jeff Tate, community development director for the city of Auburn, the “Tru By Hilton” project is “near permit ready,” indeed, has been for a long time.

Behind the scenes, the developer has been working out how to share parking and access with adjacent property owners and businesses, among them the Spunky Monkey, as the hotel will have street frontage to the north, south and east, and its main entrance will be from Auburn Way South.

“It’s really been about securing the property rights to do the project, that’s what’s been the hang-up with them,” Tate said. “It was a collection of different parcels with different buildings, and it takes a long time to aggregate all that, to eliminate buildings, eliminate property lines, work with different property owners to buy a portion.

“I think we’ll see groundbreaking in 2020,” Tate said.

“That’s really cool because it has 2017 permit numbers. It has taken awhile,” Tate added.