Convention Center hotel land deal finally closed

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — After about a decade of planning, agreements, disagreements and lawsuits, the City of Wilmington has finally closed the land sale for a hotel next to the Convention Center.

Developer Harmony Hospitality plans to build a $33.6 million, 186-room Embassy Suites Hotel on the three quarters of an acre property. The hotel will include a full-service restaurant, bar, pool and additional meeting space.

“Today marks a milestone in our 10-year-long effort to bring a first-class convention center and hotel to downtown Wilmington,” Mayor Bill Saffo said in a statement. “We’re already halfway there since the convention center opened, and now we look forward to working with Harmony to get this top quality hotel built so we can realize the full economic impact that will benefit our entire region.”

The effort to build a hotel next to the Convention Center has undergone years of delays, as potential developers dropped out because of trouble finding funding and even a lawsuit filed by the owners of the neighboring Hilton and a taxpayer, who argued the deal with Harmony violated a 2006 court ruling that prohibited public funding from subsidizing the hotel. They claimed that the sale price of $578,820 was below the estimated property of the land, which created a subsidy, but a judge this summer disagreed. That case is under appeal.

The city estimates not having a hotel has cost the Convention Center, which opened in late 2010, business, as well as millions of dollars in direct spending and economic impact for the city.

Now that the property is in private hands, the city estimates once the hotel is open, it will generate more than $800,000 a year in revenue, including room occupancy taxes, local sales tax, parking and city property tax.

A city spokeswoman says it’s unclear when construction will start, but that it should take about 18 months to complete.