May 14, 2013--A parade of new hotels continues its march through the Charleston area.

The latest proposal includes the replacement of an aging two-story hotel in Mount Pleasant with a new six-story accommodation.

A Charleston development group plans to replace the 119-room Masters Inn at 300 Wingo Way, at the corner of McGrath Darby Boulevard near the base of the Ravenel Bridge, with a 133-room Hilton Garden Inn.

The 27-year-old Masters Inn will close June 1. Demolition will start within a few weeks.

"Our timeline, we hope, is to be out of the ground no later than July," said David Tart, a partner in the project with David Swentor, both developers with Premiere Development Group of Charleston.

The property is owned by OTV Masters LLC, which bought the site for $3.75 million in July 2011.

OTV Masters is comprised of Old Tabby Ventures and The Howard Co., both based in Charleston.

Plans for the 3.75-acre tract also include a 1-acre parcel fronting Johnnie Dodds Boulevard set aside for a future restaurant, Tart said.

The new hotel will include a 2,500-square-foot meeting room, elevated patio pool and additional outdoor event and meeting space.

"We feel like Hilton Garden Inn will deliver a quality product for Mount Pleasant and it will be close to the Charleston market," Tart said. "We are looking to capitalize on the business traveler coming to Charleston who might not want to pay the rates demanded downtown and those who enjoy its proximity to the beach."

The hotel design firm is R IV Architecture of Charlotte. Mashburn Construction Co. of Mount Pleasant is the general contractor.

The new 70-foot-tall hotel is set to open in mid-2014.

Several other hotel projects are in the works across Charleston Harbor on peninsular Charleston, where more than 1,500 new hotel rooms are planned over the next few years.

Reach Warren L. Wise at 937-5524 or twitter.com/warrenlancewise.

___

(c)2013 The Post and Courier (Charleston, S.C.)

Visit The Post and Courier (Charleston, S.C.) at www.postandcourier.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services NYSE:BX,