Colony Hotel Owners Double Down With 12-Room Hedges Inn in East Hampton

Sarah and Andrew Wetenhall bought the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach in late 2016, and the property had not turned a profit in decades. A decade later they run two hotels, with a third openly on the agenda.

The nearly 80-year-old Colony, a six-story landmark nicknamed the "Pink Paradise," came with deep family history. Robert C. Wetenhall, Sarah's late father-in-law, purchased it with a business partner in 1969 and kept a penthouse apartment there even after the ownership structure changed two decades later. When he advised the couple to buy the hotel in 2016, the case against the deal was substantial.

"There was every reason in the world to not buy this hotel," Sarah says. "We had three kids and our youngest was 1. We didn't consider ourselves entrepreneurs. We had never owned a business or been in business together."

How do you fix an unprofitable landmark?

The couple spent their first year of ownership changing nothing physical. "We made a pact to learn the business, to learn this hotel, and get to know the employees," says Sarah, who serves as CEO. Consultant Susan Ritchie ran a crash course in hospitality that lasted two years. Robert, who died in 2021, acted as a sounding board.

Sarah had spent 15 years in fashion PR, marketing, and advertising before taking time off for her children. She wrote a mission statement that remains unchanged after 10 years. "I'm proud to say that that hotel exists now," she says. "That hotel is alive and thriving."

The F&B pivot came in 2019, when Swifty's — a Manhattan Upper East Side fixture until its 2016 closure — reopened inside the Colony. Sarah judged the timing deliberately: closed long enough to be missed, not long enough to be forgotten. The restaurant, which she describes as nostalgic but interpreted in a modern aesthetic, set the tone for the property's new chapter.

What did the pandemic closure make possible?

When Covid forced a temporary closure, Sarah, Andrew, and general manager Bruce Seigel chose to redesign the lobby — a non-revenue-generating area Andrew initially hesitated to fund. The logic was community signaling. "We were convincing our hotel guests to stay with us, but we were also convincing local Palm Beachers to get behind us," Sarah says.

Local firm Kemble Interiors, led by Mimi Maddock McMakin and Celerie Kemble, delivered the lobby in early 2021. It is wrapped in pink custom handpainted de Gournay wallcovering featuring South Florida flora, fauna, and the hotel's spider-monkey mascot, Johnnie Brown. Kemble Interiors then upgraded the hallways, pool, and accommodations, completing all 79 guestrooms in late 2022, in time for the hotel's 75th anniversary.

Why the Hamptons for property two?

In early 2025 the couple purchased the Hedges Inn, a 12-room East Hampton landmark established in 1873, from John Cumming, whose family had owned it for more than 30 years. Sarah frames both properties as prominent local landmarks with unrealized potential — the Colony being the tallest building on its island, the Hedges the first thing visitors see entering East Hampton Village.

She also cites market parallels. "They are both inventory-constrained, luxurious resort destinations, but destinations that can be closed," she says.

Designer David Netto, in his first commercial project, handled the interiors; he grew up in Manhattan with a summer home two blocks from the inn. The look — "Americana and nostalgic, but at the same time very well-traveled and rather savvy" — debuted in June. The Hedges restaurant and bar now house a Swifty's of its own, and the guestrooms include eight room types furnished with antique and vintage pieces sourced from the U.K., Maine, and Massachusetts.

A third property is a stated goal. "Once we got traction and people in the Hamptons reacted positively and welcomed us with open arms, we looked at each other and said, 'They get it, and there's going to be a third,'" Sarah says, describing the same style of hospitality applied uniquely to each place.