The Holiday Inn in downtown Concord will close for renovations on Dec. 15 and will reopen next year as a Hilton DoubleTree, according to its new owner.

Developer Steve Duprey purchased the hotel on North Main Street in August for $16.8 million. Already underway in some of the rooms, the building will undergo extensive interior and exterior renovations over the course of the winter with a targeted opening date of early May, Duprey said Tuesday.

“It’s a big upgrade,” he said, “but we think it’ll be a renovation that’ll be good for downtown.”

Built in 1975 and perched at the corner of Main Street and Loudon Road, the future DoubleTree is now one of six hotel properties in Concord owned by Duprey, including the Courtyard and Grappone Conference Center, the Tru by Hilton by Exit 12, the Comfort Inn, the Fairfield Inn, and the Residence Inn.

Duprey has known the previous owners, the Tsunis family, for decades. George Tsunis, part of the second generation to own the hotel and the current United States Ambassador to Greece, is a close friend, Duprey said.

The Tsunis Family had owned the Holiday Inn since 1985 and had a strong emotional attachment to it, according to a spokesperson for the family.

“We are so happy this asset is in Steve’s hands,” the family said in a statement. “We couldn’t think of selling it to anyone else.”

Duprey has long had his eye on the Holiday Inn property and has strong connections to it — he met the Tsunis family in 1988 when he opened the Comfort Inn and the two hotels agreed to share a manager. Pam Bissonnette, the current Chief Operating Officer of Duprey Hospitality, was once an employee there, Duprey noted.

The Holiday Inn has remained open since the sale, but it will close in December and the agreement with Holiday Inn expires in January, according to Duprey.

City leaders see Storrs Street, which runs behind the hotel, as a key revitalization opportunity in the coming years: it is slated, in conjunction with the state’s I-93 widening project, to be extended through to Commercial Street and Constitution Avenue, though Duprey didn’t think that would have much impact on the property.

Editor’s note: this story has been updated to correct the number of hotels owned by Duprey in Concord. The Hotel Concord is owned by Michael and Jamie Simchik. 

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at   cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com.