One of Dubai's oldest hotels, the Metropolitan on Sheikh Zayed Road, is to be torn down next year.
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The hotel, which is more than 33 years old, is famed in the UAE for its popular hangouts, Rattle Snake and The Red Lion.
"We cannot expand it and extend it," Khalaf Al Habtoor, the chairman of Al Habtoor told the radio station Dubai Eye. "Therefore we have no choice but to demolish it and rebuild a new project. The flexibility in that hotel is not there."
He said the company was still considering its options for what it could build in place of the historic hotel. One idea was to build another hotel there, Mr Al Habtoor said.
"Something else ... we are studying is whether we do a museum, theatre, mall, arcade, because it's a big site. Still we haven't made a decision yet. Maybe the beginning of January we will announce it."
Sources at the hotel said they had been informed by the head office that the property would be demolished in the middle of next year.
Occupancy was in excess of 90 per cent, Mr Al Habtoor said. But the four-star property was quite small, with only 200 rooms, he added.
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