By Megan V. Williams
Wilmington, NC – The groundbreaking for Wilmington's convention center may only be weeks away after a vote by the City Council Wednesday night.
Funding for the center's first construction contracts passed 6-to-1, with only council member Pat Delair opposing the project. However the motion to waive a second reading of the item failed, meaning the final vote will be taken at the council's next meeting later this month.
Before the vote, Dale Smith, chair of the Mayor's Convention Center Task Force, gave an impassioned argument for the Center's potential impact on Wilmington's prestige in the state, saying, "it's time for this city to grow up and have a convention center."
Some on council questioned whether a convention center is still what the city is getting, however.
Both Delair and council member Laura Padgett said what the city is proceeding with isn't what the city first approved. A hotel and restaurant had long been included in the city's plans, but Wilmington has failed to secure a developer for the site.
Current plans leave space for a possible future hotel, and the architect says the Center's foundations will be constructed from the opposite side first, to provide more time for a hotel to come on board.
Padgett cited a recent convention she attended in Fayetteville, where she says attendees complained about not having a hotel close to the meeting hall.
"Our purpose was not to build just a meeting space, it was to build a convention center. And it's really not a convention center if people can't stay there overnight, if they're not enticed to come from other places."
Council member Jason Thompson brushed off those worries, though, saying hotel developers have just been waiting for the city to fully commit to the project.
"Basically we were both standing on opposite ends of the rooms looking at each other for five or six months now and nobody took the first move. Tonight, we as a city took the first move."
The total construction project is expected to cost roughly 53 million dollars, paid for with room occupancy taxes.