The nearly $50 million Residence Inn by Marriott Melville recently opened after four years in the making, just in time for the Ryder Cup that drew about 250,000 attendees a few miles away.

The 103,555-square-foot hotel was bustling due to the golf tournament at Bethpage State Park last month, which was partly a testament to the appeal of the hotel, co-owner and hotel developer George Tsunis said.

“We knocked down an old, abandoned building and built [in its place] what I think is a gorgeous hotel,” he said.

The busyness of the hotel is indicative of the strong need on Long Island for larger and newer hotels to fill in gaps in the number of suitable rooms, which send visitors to New York City for hotel stays when big events are on the Island, he said.

WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND

The nearly $5

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