New high-end hotel, Hotel Concord, to open a floor for business in August

By: Leah Willingham, Concord Monitor

Main Street was bustling at lunch hour, as people walked in and out of the Concord Co-op, Live Juice and The Works. Decorated church steeples and the golden dome of the State House rose above.

From the curtainless windows of the Hotel Concord, Sue O’Donnell looked out at a perspective even Concord natives rarely see: a bird’s-eye view of downtown.

“This hotel is going to be different than any other hotel,” said O’Donnell, the manager.

The Hotel Concord, located in the Capital Commons building on Main Street, is an independent; high-end hotel hoping to attract tourists; corporate travelers; St. Paul’s School parents; and individuals working with organizations like Concord Hospital, UNH School of Law and Lincoln Financial, O’Donnell said.

It has 38 rooms that overlook downtown from the fourth and sixth floors of the Capital Commons, a large fitness facility, and three meeting rooms.

The hotel has been under construction since October, and on Aug. 24, the fourth floor’s executive lounge and 21 rooms – including two suites – will be open for business.

“We’re excited to get people in here,” Construction Manager Dan Demers said as he walked along one of the hotel’s unfinished hallways Wednesday.

Demers said the hotel is getting new deliveries every day. On Monday, new carpeting was installed in the conference rooms. On Tuesday, mattresses were dropped off for all of the fourth-floor rooms. Demers said at the peak of construction, 40 people were working on the project.

Michael Simchik, owner of the Capital Commons building, said he thinks the Hotel Concord will add something new to the area to match the vibrancy of the downtown revitalization of recent years.

“We’re not a cookie cutter,” Simchik said. “Every one of the rooms is different. You go into many of the brand-name hotels, and everything looks the same. Here, it’s a cool, unique type of situation.”

The fourth floor, for example, has one queen bed, 14 kings and six doubles. Six of the rooms have sofa beds, and four of the units are adjoining rooms, O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell, who worked at the Centennial Hotel in Concord for eight years, said she thinks the Hotel Concord will easily compete with the area’s nicest hotels.

The rooms have been sound-proofed with high-end technology, are spacious and have lots of natural light, according to O’Donnell. Guests will have access to continental breakfast every morning and can open a door to reach O’s Steak and Seafood and Red River Theatres. Parking will be available in the municipal parking garage on Storrs Street. 

O’Donnell said Hotel Concord’s lobby – located on the first floor of the Capital Commons – will be open to the public.

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