Metropolitan Hotel annex to open this month as 'boutique' Best Western + video
Slated for demolition less than a year ago, the long-blighted Metropolitan Hotel annex on Hilton Head Island's south end will open this month as a 63-room, "boutique" Best Western, according to the hotel's new owners.
The once-dilapidated building has been the scourge of the South Forest Beach neighborhood for years. But seven months and about $1.8 million in renovations by California-based hotel developers Sam and Hari Johal have transformed the annex, say nearby property owners.
"We've basically constructed a brand new property," Sam Johal said. "We took it right down to the concrete. We totally gutted it. Once we got into it, we knew we had to redo it all."
Outside, the building now has a new roof, railings, stucco and landscaping. Plans also call for a patio tressle and outdoor pool, the Johals explained during a tour of the property earlier this month.
Inside, each of the rooms are now equipped with Kohler showers, wooden floors, 48-inch televisions and Time Warner Cable 100 megabit-per-second Internet service, Sam Johal said. Fifteen rooms also will be kitchenette suits, with mini refrigerators, cabinet space and a microwave, he added.
The property also will include two electric car charging stations, including one exclusively for Tesla vehicles, he said.
"We've truly spared no expense," Sam Johal said.
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Tucked behind the main Metropolitan Hotel and two villa complexes off South Forest Beach Drive, the annex at 11 Lemoyne Avenue sat vacant from 2008 until early this year. The building was often vandalized during that time and became a haven for vagrants and drug dealers, who would hole up in the empty rooms, nearby owners have long complained.
A year ago, town building official Bob Klein declared the building an unsafe structure, requiring the property be rehabilitated or demolished. After months of back and forth between then-owner Remo Polselli, the annex continued to languish until the Johals purchased the entire Metropolitan Hotel from Polselli and introduced their plan to fix the building in January.
The town approved the plan and work began almost immediately in February to fix the sagging roof, exposed wires and loose guardrails cited in Klein's ruling, the Johals and town officials have said.
"We've been working seven days a week since," laughed Hari Johal, covered in paint and saw dust on a Saturday afternoon earlier this month. "Most people wouldn't build a house in seven months. We totally redid a 50,000-square-foot, 63-room hotel property in that time."
Neighbors in Xanadu and Oceanwalk villas are impressed with the Johals progress after many years of skepticism about planned improvements there.
"It's amazing what they've been able to do with that property, and in such a short amount of time, too," said Bruce Bartow, former board president of Oceanwalk Villas, which shares a wall with the annex. "I'm just really excited to see something happening there; it's such a boost."
A specific opening date for the new hotel has not been announced, pending final town inspections, Sam Johal said.
The brothers are negotiating with several other hotel companies to franchise the main hotel building on South Forest Beach Drive. Once an agreement is reached, they plan to renovate that building as well, they said.
"Hopefully it'll have a positive history now," Hari Johal said.
Follow reporter Zach Murdock on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Zach and on Facebook at facebook.com/IPBGZach.
Related content:
- Metropolitan Hotel sold, annex improvements underway on Hilton Head, Jan. 27, 2015
- Metropolitan Hotel annex moves closer to demolition, Dec. 29, 2014
- Hilton Head: Metropolitan Hotel must fix or demolish abandoned building, Aug. 7, 2014
- Revamp for Metropolitan Hotel, annex announced; skeptics remain, June 15, 2013
- Forest Beach property owners want action on abandoned building, June 10, 2013
This story was originally published September 8, 2015 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Metropolitan Hotel annex to open this month as 'boutique' Best Western + video."