New hotel underway in Keene

Hampton Inn & Suites being built on site of failed project

Construction has finally begun on a long-awaited Keene hotel project, with expectations that the new facility will open for business in May 2019.

The 100-room, 58-000-square-foot Hampton Inn & Suites is being built on a 2.25 acre site on Key Road. The four-story hotel will include an indoor swimming pool, with stucco and brick design elements.

Russell and Dawson, an architecture, engineering and construction firm based in Hartford, Conn., is heading up construction. Jamsan Hotel Management of Lexington, Mass., will manage the Keene Hampton Inn & Suites. The property owner is Jazzlyn Hospitality II LLC, which is also based in Lexington, and bought the property three years ago.

A similar hotel had been planned at the site going back to 2006, but by 2008 the project failed after the then-owner’s president was convicted of employing undocumented workers at another of his properties. But it wasn’t before part of the structure had already been built. In 2010, another owner tried to resurrect the project and also failed before Jazzlyn picked up the property in 2015.