NEW OWNER TO RENOVATE COMMANDER HOTEL

Walter A. Gulserian has bought the Commander Hotel on Garden Street and plans a $500,000 program of renovation and refurbishing to make the hotel one of the most modern in Cambridge.

Gulserian, presently manager of the Ambassador Hotel, will obtain new furniture, rugs, draperies, radios and televisions for every room. The entire hotel will be air-conditioned, and new kitchens will be built into the 67 residential apartments.

"If there is indication of continued growth in Cambridge," Gulserian said yesterday, he may expand the hotel's Mount Vernon Room to a 1,000 seat ballroom. The existing 350 seat George Washington Room and the lobby will be decorated next year.