KEENE, NH – 50 Downtown Keene businesses have come together and submitted a letter to Mayor George Hansel and the Keene City Council, urging them to delay the start of the Downtown Infrastructure Improvement and Reconstruction Project.

While the businesses acknowledge in the letter that they’re aware the underground infrastructure work must be done, the project is estimated to take about three years to complete, and it comes on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was an additional three years of economic hardship for the businesses.

“As business owners we see two distinct costs being incurred,” the letter says. “One being the overall cost of the infrastructure project and the other: the economic cost (hardship) to our downtown businesses.”

With that in mind, the business owners are asking the city to consider pushing the start of the project to 2026 to give them more time to plan.

“A projected start time of 2026 would give downtown businesses more time to prepare financially for this infrastructure work, and help us recover from all the challenges this pandemic has presented.”

The letter does not discuss the redesign portion of the project in great detail, referring to it as an unknown.

“Layered on top of these costs are our concerns regarding the revamping/redesign of Main Street which at this juncture is a big unknown,” the letter says. “Will it bring the promise that Stantec envisions or something much different and what will we be asked once again to endure through this phase? Let us not forget the 1988 Main Street construction project to which we lost 25% of downtown businesses. Do we want to risk this again? Could it be worse? These are the questions that keep downtown business owners up at night.”

The letter goes on to say that the business owners want to keep Downtown Keene a vibrant shopping and dining destination, and they don’t want to do anything that would impact the city negatively in the future.

Ted McGreer, owner of Ted’s Shoe and Sport at 115 Main Street in Downtown Keene joined WKBK’s Good Morning program Monday to discuss the letter and said there needs to be more communication between the city and the businesses on the issue.

“We’re not coming at the city with guns blazing, we just want to be clear, and I think the ultimate message was we really need more conversation as business owners, as stakeholders,” McGreer said. The full discussion is available here.

Businesses who collaborated on the letter include: Ted’s Shoe and Sport, Prime Roast Coffee Company, Moe Momentum Clothing, The Colonial Performing Arts center, The Stage Restaurant, Luca’s Mediterranean Café, Winchendon Furniture, Fireworks Restaurant, Miranda’s on Main, Synergy Sportswear, The Toadstool Bookshop, Mon Amie Fine Jewelry, Rock Paper Scissors Hair Salon, Life Is Sweet, Urban Exchange, Machina Arts, Beeze Tees, The Works Bakery Café, Lab’n Lager, Good Fortune Jewelry, The Pawn Shop, The Piazza, Athens Pizza, The Pour House, Sole’s Bar, Fritz, Horse and Buggy Feeds, The Simple Nest, The Farm Cafe, Local Burger, Yahso Jamaican Grille, Concord Med Spa, Greenwald Realty, B&B Style Salon, Country Life Vegetarian Restaurant, Logan Elizabeth Photography, Monadnock Shutter and Shade, Retromusic, Jakes 5 Star, The Gilded Mane, La Pêche Lingerie, Mable and Lou Boutique, Ann Henderson Interiors, The Keene Axe House, Curry Copy Center, Wicked Glass Art, Belltower Property Management, Sterling Studios Yoga and Healing Arts, Syd’s Carpet and Snooze Room, and Bulldog Design.

The project is currently slated to begin by 2024. The city is hosting one more public hearing on the project to gather feedback from the community on the redesign on February 21st at 6 pm in the Keene High School Auditorium.