Luncheon highlights ‘growth and transformation’ in downtown Wilmington

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Gov. Roy Cooper attended the Downtown Economic Series Luncheon Tuesday at the Wilmington Convention Center, where he gave the keynote speech.

Hosted by Wilmington Downtown Incorporated, the session focused on the growth and transformation taking place in downtown Wilmington.

Part of that discussion dealt with the state of the economy in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence.

“We need people to come down here and visit,” Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said. “We had a lot of our small business owners that were impacted very heavily because of the storm. So we need a lot of support of our small business owners in our community, not only in Wilmington and New Hanover County, but in Pender and Brunswick County also, they were impacted very heavily because of this storm.”

Mayor Bill Saffo says as our area continues to recover, the number tourism dollars coming in is increasing.

“We’re anticipating that we’re going to have a good spring, we’re going to have a great Azalea Festival, we’re going to start off the tourist season, I believe, in a good way,” Saffo said. “And I think that we’re prepared and ready to go, a lot of the beach hotels are back in operation, which is a good thing. And every hotel in the downtown region is in operation and doing well.”

Mayor Saffo says there is also a lot of construction and development not only downtown, but all over the area, which is positive for the economy.