🔒130-room hotel under construction in busy Portland district

A 130-room Home2 Suites by Hilton extended-stay hotel has broken ground in Portland’s waterfront neighborhood on India Street, between Fore and Middle streets, next door to the 125-room Hampton Inn. It is expected to open by May 2028. Dennis Craven, chief operating officer at West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Chatham Lodging Trust (NYSE: CLDT), told Mainebiz the property is projected to be 88,000 square feet. It will include 5,500 square feet of commercial and retail space to be marketed as condominiums by the Boulos Co. “We believe in the long-term health of the downtown Portland market and have been planning a second hotel on this site since 2018," Craven said.

A pocket park between the two hotels is also planned. Craven said the hotel will share valet service with the Hampton Inn, which is also owned by Chatham Lodging Trust. “Any excess parking needed will be housed offsite through the third-party parking management company,” he noted. The Home2 Suites will be the ninth hospitality property within a mile in the city's Commercial and India streets area, and the 17th hotel on the Portland peninsula. Additionally, Fathom Cos. is renovating the former Fidelity Trust building on Monument Square, which will be a 101-key luxury hotel, scheduled to open in summer 2027. The company has no other hotels in Maine, but two in New Hampshire — in Portsmouth and Exeter. Procon Construction, based in Hooksett, N.H., is the contractor on the Portland project. Procon is also building the 148-room Residence Inn / Moxy Hotel by Marriott on Portland’s Thompson’s Point, which is slated to open this summer. The company has built more than 20 hotels in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New Jersey, along with the West Street Hotel in Bar Harbor and a Home2 Suites in Kittery. Procon also builds medical, multi-family, educational, industrial and commercial use buildings — even ice rinks, including the Watson Ice Arena at Bowdoin College in Brunswick.