Aug. 07–Plans are underway to spruce up the Metropolitan Hotel and its vacant annex building on Hilton Head Island, according to hotel officials.
The annex, which has accrued more than $4,300 in fines for fire-code violations this spring, has been cleared, and the company will begin soliciting bids this week for a new roof, said general manager Chris Roberts.
Plans to revamp the hotel’s 76 rooms could also be completed this month, and construction could begin in October, he said.
Owners of the hotel, which has garnered complaints from Forest Beach residents about its dilapidated appearance, announced plans in June to renovate it and convert the annex into a hostel and housing for foreign students on work visas.
Remo Polselli, CEO of New California Hotels Corp., said he hopes the renovations for both buildings are completed in March, in time to open for the summer tourist season under new names. The hotel will become the Coligny Beach Resort, and the annex will be called the eChoice Hotel.
“We’ve secured the funding, and we are moving forward 100 percent,” Polselli said.
The Laguna Beach, Calif., real estate development company is partnering with H2 Associates, the hotel’s owner, to complete the redevelopment.
The total cost of the project won’t be known until the room designs are finished, Polselli said.
By next week, hotel management will show its owners a completed model of the new rooms, Roberts said. The renovations could cost between $10,000 to $15,000 a room, he said. He said the renovations will also include upgrades to the hotel’s pool and landscaping.
“It wouldn’t do us any good to redo all the rooms and have the outside look as rundown as it does right now,” Roberts said.
Those exterior changes would be welcomed by some of the hotel’s neighbors.
Jack Daly, president of the Forest Beach Owners Association, said he is glad to hear the hotel is making progress with the redevelopment, but he would like to see at least some “basic touch-ups” to the exterior and landscaping soon.
“It’s still the same kind of mess it’s been for a while,” Daly said. “But I hope they’re coming through with it, of course. We want it to be better. It’s our neighborhood.”
Town building official Bob Klein said the hotel management has not applied for any of the building permits needed for the renovations. Klein said the permitting process takes about 10 days after an application is submitted. Starting construction in October could be a realistic goal, he said.
A permit to replace the annex’s roof would need to be submitted after a contractor was selected, Klein said.
The annex was cited twice in April for fire-code violations and twice more in June after its managers failed to remove combustibles from the vacant building or fix its alarms or sprinklers.
Owners of the hotel paid each of the four $1,092 fines later that month.
Joheida Fister, fire marshal with the Hilton Head Island Fire & Rescue Division, said all of the combustibles — mostly furniture — had been removed before a July 18 inspection.
She said the division would check on the building periodically to ensure it stays up to code.
Roberts said the annex will remain empty until the new roof, estimated to cost around $100,000, is added.
Follow reporter Brian Heffernan at twitter.com/IPBG_Brian.
