Beverly Hills Hotel will close for renovation.

The Beverly Hills Hotel, once the queen of Southland inns, is today a dowager and must be closed for two years for a top-to-bottom makeover, according to documents the 80-year-old landmark has filed with the City of Beverly Hills.

"The hotel has been in operation for nearly 80 years without a complete and thorough renovation. As a result, the current infrastructure and back-of-house facilities . . . are woefully inadequate for a five-star, world-class, luxury hotel," according to permit applications. "The city's permission (is needed) to bring the hotel back to a position of prominence both within the local community and within the greater community of world-class hotels."

The hotel is owned by the Sultan of Brunei, who is regarded by Fortune magazine as the richest man on the planet, worth about $31 billion. Brunei is a small nation on the island of Borneo, in the Pacific Ocean.

The sultan is known for his extravagant rehabilitations, including the Dorchester Hotel on London.

Overseeing the re-do of the 10-acre site and the 261-room Beverly Hills Hotel is Edward Friedrichs, managing principal of the Santa Monica-based architectural firm Gensler & Associates.

Industry insiders said the shutdown is slated for September, and should cost about $150 million, not including lost revenues.

On Sunset Boulevard, the Beverly Hills Hotel and Bungalows gross about $27.4 million a year, assuming an average room rate of $288, a 60 percent occupancy rate and that room revenues are 60 percent of total revenues.

The room and occupancy rates are derived from a recent study on Westside hotels prepared by downtown Los Angeles-based CPA firm Pannell Kerr Forster.

Hotel employees have been told to expect the September shutdown, and the hotel is not booking banquets after then, according to Ron Oberon, director of catering. Oberon is referring business to the Regent Beverly Wilshire.

About 500 people are employed at Beverly Hills Hotel, of whom 400 are represented by the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees International Union. Union workers said last week they will seek a severance package for the two-year-long layoff.

"The sultan is the richest man on the planet. He can afford to invest in the workers of the hotel during the renovation," said Eric Altman, union organizer.

Meanwhile, the fate of the famed Polo Lounge -- watering hole of Hollywood's power brokers -- during the 24-month hiatus could not be determined last week.

Hotel officials aren't talking.

"There is no statement whatsoever to be made about the rehabilitation," said Sheila O'Brien, hotel spokeswoman. "I hope it is clear to you that we have no comment to make."

However, Oberon, the hotel's catering chieftain, said the Polo Lounge will probably close for the duration.

The Beverly Hills Hotel was bought in 1987 by the Brunei Investment Agency, an arm of the nation of Brunei.

Most people consider the Delaware-sized nation to be the province of the Sultan of Brunei. The sultan bought the hotel from Los Angeles billionaire Marvin Davis, who in turn had purchased it in 1986 from Ivan Boesky, the arbitrageur convicted of insider trading.

The application the hotel filed with the city reveals the rehabilitation project to be a major undertaking.

The sultan plans to following:

* A new, 191-stall, three-story, underground employee parking garage.

* In addition to the parking garage, another 90 new parking spaces, bring the hotel's total number of parking spaces to 701.

* On-site laundry and dry-cleaning facilities.

* Six new bungalows.

* New gardens and lakes around the bungalows, and in the front of the hotel, replacing parking lots.

* A major, architecturally consistent facelift of the hotel's exterior.

* Central air-conditioning and heating systems.

* Enlarged gathering areas outside banquet rooms.

* A new health club and gymnasium.

Despite the new bungalows, enough rooms will be enlarged -- thus wiping out some smaller rooms -- that the total number of rentable rooms will decrease to 247 from 261, according to the hotel's application to the city.

A major theme of the rehabilitation is to reduce the hotel's impact on the surrounding neighborhood, which is zoned for single-family housing and has some of the world's ritziest estates.

The employee parking and additional parking for guests will obviate the need to park on surrounding city streets or lots, said Tom Ito, vice president and senior project manager for Gensler & Associates.

Currently, the hotel will valet-park guests' cars on city streets during major events or peak seasons.

Too, the new, on-site laundry and dry-cleaning facilities will cut truck traffic into and out of the hotel, according to the application.

The renovation will go to lengths to bring back the architectural vision of the hotel's original designer, Elmer Grey. Additions to the hotel through the years will be facelifted to be made consistent with the original "craftsmen/mission revival" style of Grey.

When the resort hotel was built in 1911, it was then situated in a rural setting, allowing guests to ride rented horses into the countryside. A trolley line with one car, known as a "dinkie," connected the hotel to the Pacific Electric Red Car System of trolleys, which then were beginning to flourish.

Over the years the city encroached upon the hotel, to the point where the lushly landscaped hotel grounds have become a refuge of nature, compared to the area's surrounding urbanity.