Hotel expansion nearly complete

The expansion of the Hampton Inn & Suites in Rockville Centre should be completed early next month after being under construction for about a year.

Hotel owner Jules Abromsen said the extension will open around Feb. 9.

Abromsen purchased the adjacent land at the base of the Sunrise Highway exit ramp to Merrick Road, which was once occupied by a thermometer company, for about $600,000 and used it to build an extension to the existing hotel, creating an L-shaped building. The entire project, including the land and a new parking lot, cost $21 million.

The extension adds 38 more rooms on four floors, bringing the total of the entire hotel to 121. The new rooms are bigger and feature a wooden floor entrance, modernized bathrooms, furniture, beds, sinks and larger flat-screen televisions. Wifi will also be available.

“[I wanted] to grow the hotel and upgrade it at the same time,” Abromsen said. “I wanted to make everything more modern.”

The wing itself will have a glass elevator that will face the Rockville Centre village, updated meeting rooms, a guest laundry room and hallways with pattern carpeting. The gymnasium will be moving from the original hotel and have new equipment. The stairways were still being worked on when the Herald visited on Jan. 20.

“The area needed it,” said hotel general manager Cristina Velez. “[There’s] a big demand for rooms, so we wanted to give the guests what they are asking for.”

Abromsen said he will be updating the original part of the building with the similar amenities after the new wing opens.

The 79-year-old Abromsen was the original owner of Bramson House, a hotel supply distributor, for 47 years and the factory was on the same site as the Hampton Inn before the business shifted to Freeport. The hotel was built in 2003.