Aug. 10–NASHUA — Nashua planning officials unanimously approved the construction of a 118-room hotel and freestanding restaurant during a meeting this week.

The Planning Board granted a special use permit to Nashua TS Residence Inn and developer Robert Walker to build the hotel at 25 Trafalgar Square in the city’s north end.

Project engineer Katie Enright said the hotel will be a Residence Inn. A 6,000-square-foot stand-alone restaurant was also approved as part of the project, she said.

The has been vacant for more than a decade. The new hotel will be behind the recently renovated Market Basket in the Somerset Shopping Plaza near Exit 8 of the F.E. Everett Turnpike.

Several large hotels are also in that area off Somerset Parkway, including the Crowne Plaza and the Courtyard by Marriott.

Enright said the site has been abandoned since 2000, when a 9,500-square-foot office building was approved for the area but abandoned after the foundation was laid and economic woes caused the cancellation of the project.

Kathy Vitale, Ward 1 alderman and Planning Board member, said the new hotel would fill a niche along with the other hotels in that area.

“I believe they do a very good job,” she said. “It’s a nice mix with the other hotels that are there at this time.”

Vitale said a vacant property being developed in the city is a good sign, and that this project may be an indication that the economy is heading in the right direction.

“This location has been open for quite some time,” she said. “I think it’s a nice sign and that this is an indication that the economy has switched in such a way that the company feels good about proceeding with a project at this time.”

Vitale said no one spoke in opposition to the project. Some residents of the Cannongate development nearby expressed some concerns about traffic, but were allayed by conditions the Planning Board included in its approval, she said.

Neither Walker nor city engineer Stephen Dookran were available for comment Friday.

Joseph G. Cote can be reached at 594-6415 or jcote@nashua telegraph.com. Also, follow Cote on Twitter (@Telegraph_JoeC).