317 East Bay Street, formerly the Maison du Pré Inn, was purchased April 5 by Dean and Lynn Andrews. Mr. Andrews was the first Managing Director of Charleston Place Hotel, and a longtime Orient-Express Hotels senior executive officer.

The circa-1804 property consists of three houses and two carriage houses, with eighteen bedrooms, public rooms, and landscaped gardens. The properties sold for $3.2 million. On the market since 2008, the property’s listing agent was Jane Smith Smith of Carriage Properties, LLC, while the Andrews were represented by Mona Kalinsky of William Means Real Estate.

The Andrews have indicated their intention to operate the property as a boutique hotel, post renovation and repositioning. The re-launch plans will be finalized in the next several weeks. Mr. Andrews notes that he and his wife, Lynn Easton Andrews, “are very much looking forward to being back in Charleston with our friends, in a city and culture that we know well and very much appreciate.”

Mr. Andrews was Managing Director of the Ownership of Charleston Place Hotel from its opening in 1988 until 2008, and was responsible for the hotel’s business operation as well as the hotel’s sale to Orient-Express Hotels, Ltd., in 1996. Andrews joined Orient-Express as President of the North American holdings, and actively expanded the company from 12 properties to 50 properties internationally. He moved to New York in 2000 to be part of the team that took Orient-Express public on the NYSE. He is now a principal in an expanding boutique hotel operating and investment company, Hay Creek Hotels.

Ms. Andrews is the owner of Easton Events LLC, an event design and management company producing high-end weddings, social events, and corporate board of directors retreats, founded in 2000.

Carriage Properties, LLC’s Jane Smith Smith notes that the property’s former owners, the Mulholland family, “are excited to have the lights back on and life in the inn.” Lucille and Robert Mulholland and their son, Mark, opened the inn in 1987, at the corner of George Street and East Bay Street in the Ansonborough Historic District, steps from Gaillard Municipal Auditorium. Before it closed in 2007, the inn was featured in publications such as the New York Times, Country Inns, Great Inns of America, and France’s Maison & Jardin. In 2009 Lucille and Robert’s daughter, Teri Mulholland Bergin, was instrumental in arranging for the property to be showcased as the Symphony Designer Showhouse to benefit the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, of which Lucille was an avid supporter.

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