A hotel under construction for about 10 years and once expected to open in the spring of 2018 is accepting reservations for mid-April after a sale by the initial developer.
The Beacon Suites Hotel at 371 Beacon St. – until recently known as the Beacon Street Hotel – has 35 extended-stay units, an airy, three-story lobby and an underground garage for guests. Jamsan, a Lexington firm, said it is managing the hotel as part of a broad portfolio that includes work with national brands such as Hilton and Marriott.
Young H. (Peter) Lee of Watertown launched the hotel as one of three he was building around Porter Square. He opened the 65-room Porter Square Hotel in Cambridge in October 2016 and followed that in early 2019 with the 50-room Hotel 1868, several blocks to the south down Massachusetts Avenue.
Construction times on the other hotels were long too, but the Beacon Street project stood out.
“I’ve been here for nine years and it feels like it’s always been in this state of construction,” said Tom Galligani, executive director of Somerville’s Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development. “Usually a project like that might take 18 months to two years to build … time is money, and developers need to launch their projects as expeditiously as possible.”
Elusive developer
Neither Lee nor Jamsan were forthcoming with details about the hotel or its history, which is clogged with obscure financial transactions among bespoke LLCs and holding companies. Lee responded to a reporter’s email Dec. 30 to ask “what you need on this project,” then never again. Jamsan management ignored emails and phone messages.
City officials also reported difficulty reaching Lee over the years, leaving them to wonder when the hotel might open. “It’s not unusual for projects to get stuck. There could be all sorts of reasons,” Galligani said.
But the project site wasn’t neglected to the point of becoming a public danger, Galligani said, and Lee has successful projects in Somerville. He opened a four-story apartment building at 315 Broadway in the Ten Hills neighborhood in 2015, and took over and completed the Cross Street East condos in East Somerville in 2018.
Sold in 2015 for $10
The Beacon Street hotel land, where Beacon Street meets Somerville Avenue at the Cambridge city line, was once a gas station owned by the Makrigiannis family. Land records show a March 3, 2015, sale for $10 – a previous sale in 2007 was for $785,000 – to Lee’s Beacon Street Hotel LLC, a company organized the previous September.
A week after that $10 sale, East Boston Savings Bank bought it with a construction mortgage note of $9.9 million. The bank amended the mortgage by $2.4 million on June 4, 2020, for a total $12.3 million.
Years of partial development incurred legal action by a Rhode Island subcontractor. AC Painting and Wallcovering put a lien on the property Sept. 9, 2025, for nonpayment of work done for Young Contracting. The lien was dissolved Nov. 17.
The hotel sold last year for $9.3 million, backed by $7.8 million in financing from Beacon Bank & Trust, the Bldup real estate platform reported on Nov. 21. The reported sale price is $3 million less than the total East Boston Savings Bank backing.
Partial answers from managers
There are quitclaim covenants for the property conveyed to a Jamsan subsidiary – one of its many – formed Dec. 11. Quitclaim covenants transfer property ownership, but the meaning of this transaction for the Beacon Street property is unclear.
A visit to the office park where Jamsan does business resulted in only partial answers from company rep Nikul Patel.
Jamsan will operate but not own the hotel, Patel said. He referred other questions to the owners of the company, who were away at the time and haven’t returned messages.
Despite Patel’s statement, documents for a Jan. 20 meeting of the Licensing Commission showed JHM Beacon Hospitality LLC – which shares an address with Jamsan – was the license holder of the hotel. Ravi Patel, the manager of record for the hotel, told the commission that it was expected to open in March.
The hotel would not have its own food or alcohol service, Ravi Patel said, but there is a meeting room space that could be leased to a separate business – and that business could seek a food or alcohol license, independent of the innholder license.
This post was updated Feb. 25, 2026, with information from a Jan. 20, 2026, meeting of the Licensing Commission.
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