South Forest Beach hotel to re-open this summer as Grand Hilton Head Inn

The Metropolitan Hotel on South Forest Beach Drive will be rebranded this summer as an independent boutique hotel called the Grand Hilton Head Inn.

Renovations are underway at the 78-room inn, owned by cousins Sam Johal and Hari Johl of California. Sam Johal said he expects the light upgrade, including new carpets and flooring, to take about two months.

He did not have an estimate of the cost of the renovations on Monday, but said it will be less expensive than their remodel of the Metropolitan Hotel annex on Lemoyne Avenue last year.

That $1.8-million update involved a full transformation of the long-vacant annex, which was reopened in September as the Best Western Ocean Breeze Inn.

The cousins also bought the Chimney Cove neighborhood in December, a 43-year-old community of modular homes near Palmetto Dunes and Yacht Cove. They are renovating those 52 homes as housing for seasonal resort workers, and will eventually redevelop the property, which is zoned for up to 104 homes, Johal said.

This story was originally published March 29, 2016 at 1:59 PM with the headline "South Forest Beach hotel to re-open this summer as Grand Hilton Head Inn."