A $20 million renovation and re-branding is set to begin for the Hilo Naniloa Hotel and Golf Club more than a year after a group of investors bought the struggling property on state land.

The hotel’s new owner is holding a groundbreaking ceremony and blessing Tuesday. Work is scheduled to be finished in March, at which time the hotel will become the DoubleTree by Hilton Hilo-Naniloa.

Improvements will include work on all 388 guest rooms, the lobby, the lounge, banquet facilities, a waterfront restaurant, a poolside bar, a fitness center, retail shops and an event space where local musician Willie K will perform regularly.

“The restoration project is intended to reposition the iconic property as a destination hotel,” announced Aqua-Aston Hospitality, the hotel’s management firm, which will continue to operate the property under the DoubleTree name.

The Naniloa, which was built in 1966 on land leased from the state along Banyan Drive and includes a nine-hole golf course, fell on hard times after the Great Recession as former owner Hawaii Outdoor Tours Inc. filed bankruptcy. It had acquired the property in 2006 and got caught in the economic downturn partway through a renovation plan.

Hotel operations at one point under Hawaii Outdoor lacked a functioning restaurant, had one of two pools closed and only 179 rooms in use. Occupancy fell to as low as 20 percent to 30 percent.

Hawaii Outdoor, led by Hilo businessman Ken Fujiyama, lost the property in a bankruptcy auction to a company led by real estate developer Ed Bushor that paid $7 million in December 2013.

The new owner group, which also includes Hawaii island landowner Ed Olson, made quick improvements to items including landscaping and retained Aqua-Aston to help with reviving the one-time Hilo hotel gem. The major renovation had been expected sooner but took longer to arrange than previously expected.