FIRST ON 3: Convention Center gets hotel

During his monthly “Ask the Mayor” appearance tonight on WWAY NewsChannel 3 at 5, Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo announced the city has selected a hotel for the Convention Center. Saffo said a 250-room Embassy Suites by John Q. Hammons will open next to the facility.

The 14-story all-suite hotel will include a two-story lobby with grand stairway, water feature and internet cafe, a three-meal restaurant, a lobby lounge, a health and fitness spa, a boardroom, seven meeting rooms on the 14th floor overlooking the Cape Fear River, guest laundry and complimentary breakfast and beverage for guests.

Saffo says the Embassy Suites is the full-service hotel the city was looking for to complement the Convention Center, which is slated to open later this year. No word yet on when the hotel will open.

Saffo says Hammons first came to Wilmington to talk about a hotel at the Convention Center two years ago. The Mayor says Hammons has a track record of designing and building similar hotels for similar facilities around the South.

The city has had problems with the hotel project before. Last fall it terminated an agreement with Wilmington River Group to build a Hotel Indigo, because the developer could not come up with a required financing agreement.