City May Seek New Convention Center Hotel Proposals

By Megan V. Williams

Wilmington, NC – One million dollars. That's roughly the sticking point between the city of Wilmington and two separate developers interested in building a hotel next to its convention center.

The city accepted two proposals for the project last summer, but wants those developers to guarantee close to a million dollars of promise money in case they back out of the project.

But, after months of stalemate, neither of the companies has agreed to those terms. So Convention Center Project Manager Steve Bridges says the city may seek new proposals from other companies sometime in January.

It'll be essentially the same, but we will be asking for some financial guarantees that would be a guarantee that once you enter into an agreement with the city of Wilmington to build a hotel, that a hotel would actually be built.

Armada Hoffler, the developer originally selected by the city, walked away from the project after the city refused their plan to scale down the hotel's restaurant.

Bridges says any new proposals would still have to provide a hotel with a full-service restaurant.

The city broke ground on the planned convention center at the beginning of December.