The University of Houston is expecting to receive a $20 million donation from Tilman Fertitta, the billionaire who chairs its board of regents, to help rebuild the school's basketball arena and put his name on it, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the plan.

Earlier this month, the university settled a legal scuffle with the family of the late Harris County Judge Roy Hofheinz about changing the name of the arena that is named after him. The settlement cleared the way for the university to move ahead with fundraising and the process of renaming the arena.

Under the plan, Fertitta, the Landry's restaurants company founder and CEO, would give $20 million toward the $60 million arena project - a lead gift large enough to include naming rights on the facility, sources said. The planned $20 million donation from an anonymous donor was announced in November 2015, but the university has refused to say who pledged the gift.

Multiple sources have confirmed that Fertitta has decided to give the money, but the process stalled during the university's legal fight with the Hofheinz family. No agreement has been signed with Fertitta and no check has been cut, but the university is still counting on his major gift to begin the renovation of the 8,479-seat Hofheinz Pavilion, sources said. His donation would help fill a funding gap left when construction on the university's $128 million football stadium ran over budget in 2014, eating into money raised through a student fee meant to rebuild the basketball arena.

Last week the university would neither confirm nor deny the plan to rename the arena after Fertitta, saying it would not reveal the names of donors who "wish to remain anonymous."

"Our ethical obligations to our donors are not negotiable," UH spokesman Mike Rosen said in a statement. "We are optimistic that we will have a naming gift to present to the Board of Regents for approval soon."

Through a spokeswoman, Fertitta declined to comment for this story.

The university's board would have to vote to accept Fertitta's gift and to name the arena after him. It's not uncommon for members of university governing boards to give large donations to the colleges they represent, but board members who become donors should recuse themselves from any discussions or votes about granting them naming rights on a university building, said John B. Carter, the former president and chief operating officer of the Georgia Tech Foundation.

"If it's a quid pro quo - in other words, 'I'll give you the money if you put my name on a building' - he certainly wouldn't be able to vote on that," said Buck Wood, a longtime Austin lobbyist who specializes in ethics and board governance issues.

It's unclear if, or to what extent, Fertitta has been part of the university's discussions of the arena renaming plans, since no talks have taken place publicly. As board chair, however, Fertitta, one of the biggest public cheerleaders of UH athletics, voted to authorize the arena renovation plans last November when the $20 million anonymous donation was first announced. He also took part in negotiations with the Hofheinz family, who filed a lawsuitin May seeking to require the University of Houston to keep the Hofheinz name on the arena. Hofheinz, the former county judge, gave the university $1.5 million to build the basketball arena in 1969.

Under the agreement reached with the Hofheinz family,the university plans to build a bronze statue of him near the renovated arena and will ask the city of Houston to rename a portion of Holman Street between Cullen and Scott in honor of Hofheinz, among other things.

Hunter Yurachek, UH's vice president for intercollegiate athletics, said last month the university can now focus on the upgrades to the basketball arena.

"Everything has been put on hold until we had this resolution," Yurachek said after the legal spat with the Hofheinz family was settled. "Today enables us to move forward."

The Hofheinz arena renovations were originally supposed to be paid for through a $45 monthly student fee.

The fee was meant to cover costs to build a new football stadium and rebuild the basketball arena, but the football stadium ended up costing at least $20 million more than UH expected, draining funding for the arena project.

UH officials have said as far back as November 2014 that they would need to raise more money to remodel the basketball arena.

The $20 million gift from the university's board chair would kick off a fundraising campaign to cover the remainder of the tab for the arena renovation.

Fertitta, who is serving his second six-year term on the UH board of regents, was elected chair of the board in 2014. The Galveston native is chairman, CEO and controlling shareholder of Landry's Inc. The company's holdings include the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Biloxi, Lake Charles; and the Kemah Boardwalk, Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier, and restaurant chains such as Morton's The Steakhouse, McCormick and Schmick's, Chart House, Bubba Gump, Rainforest Café, Saltgrass Steakhouse, and Vic and Anthony's.

Fertitta has campaigned actively for the Big 12 athletic conference to consider adding UH. Last year, he said that the Texas Legislature should pressure the presidents of Big 12 universities to open their arms to UH. The upgraded basketball facility could help the university's chances of gaining entry to the more competitive conference, which has a national profile.

"We belong playing Texas and TCU and Baylor," Fertitta told the Chronicle's editorial board in 2015. "That's who we belong playing."