Chetrit's Angular and Towering Williamsburg M500 Hotel Nears Finish Line

On a busy Williamsburg corner, a long-in-the-works hotel-apartment-retail complex is nearing completion.

Located at 500 Metropolitan Avenue and towering above greasy-food staple Kellogg’s Diner, the 14-story complex known as M500 will house 188 hotel rooms and 59 apartments as well as shops.

Although the building is a condo, whether the apartments will be condos or rentals is unclear, and the building offering plan does not offer any insight. (It calls for four commercial units and one residential.)

There will also be a pool on the fourth floor. The building has yet to receive its certificate of occupancy.

Kutnicki Bernstein is the main architect, and 500 Metropolitan Avenue isn’t the only hospitality project they’ve worked on in the borough: The firm’s also behind the design of the recently opened Gowanus Inn and Yard.

When we last checked, most of the scaffolding had come down on the Metropolitan side of the building, revealing the facade of the stepped, triangular structure. Now, the facade is complete, including a three-story triangular bay window that looks over the Keap Street side of the building.

Windows and doors are in on the first floor, which is visible from the sidewalk, and some of the ground-floor rooms have lights and walls while others remain staging grounds and are under construction.

The unusual rusted Corten steel fence that screens the yard from the sidewalk is in place behind the green construction fence and portions of it are visible where the green fence is missing.

Hanging over a busy intersection of Williamsburg right next to the to BQE, the hotel will further transform a corner of the neighborhood that has seen rapid development along Union Street in recent years.

The developer of the complex is Chetrit Group. Headed by real estate mogul Joseph Chetrit, they’re behind another prominent development: Downtown Brooklyn’s supertall at 9 Dekalb Avenue, which will eventually be the tallest tower in the borough.

In 2008, renderings and promotional materials pegged 500 Metropolitan Avenue as a big-box store complex, but then things went quiet during the downturn. In 2012, applications for building permits were filed. Ground was broken in 2013, but then not much happened until work started on the foundation in 2015.

During this time, the design has gone through at least five iterations and three architects: Gene Kaufman and Meltzer/Mandl Architects were previously tapped.

M500 is part of a larger hotel boom in Williamsburg, which has seen Heritage Equity Partners’ Williamsburg Hotel, the Pod Hotel, the William Vale and the Wythe Hotel rise in recent years.

[Photos by Craig Hubert, unless otherwise noted]

Related Stories

• Work Resumes at Chetrit Hotel-Apartment-Stores Development on Metropolitan in ‘Burg
• Facade Emerges From Scaffolding at Chetrit’s Ambitious Williamsburg M500 Hotel
• The William Vale Hotel Tops Out in Williamsburg

Email tips@brownstoner.com with further comments, questions or tips. Follow Brownstoner on Twitter and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.