The Al Habtoor Group, which celebrates its 45th anniversary this year, entered the hotel space in 1979 with the Metropolitan Hotel. That hotel was demolished in 2012 to make way for the Group’s flagship project, Al Habtoor City, on the banks of the Dubai Water Canal. However, the Group announced it will revive the Metropolitan name with a new 4-star hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road on the junction with Al Thanya.
Commenting on the new Metropolitan, the Group’s Chairman Khalaf Ahmed Al Habtoor said, “We are pleased to bring back an old favourite. We started out in the hotel business in 1979 with the Metropolitan Hotel, so it is fitting as we approach our 45th anniversary that we should revive an established brand that is so much part of our heritage. I feel sure that the new Metropolitan will enjoy the same success as the original one and become embedded in the hearts of Dubai’s residents and visitors alike.”
The Metropolitan Sheikh Zayed Road, forecast for completion in 2016, will have a total of 334 rooms and suites. It will also incorporate a lobby café, outdoor courtyard café, all-day dining restaurant and Don Corleone Italian restaurant. Other facilities include a ballroom with a pre-function room, five meeting rooms with breakout areas, a business centre and rooftop swimming pool and gymnasium. The hotel, designed by Khatib & Alami, will also see the revival of the Red Lion traditional English pub.
Al Habtoor added, “When we closed the Metropolitan, which was our first hotel in Dubai, I promised our regular customers that I would one day revive the Red Lion. Today, I am delivering on that promise. I am not nostalgic, but I am conscious of what our customers want, and I am confident that this new hotel will become a new destination in Dubai.”