Wilmington Convention Center Hotel

By Megan V. Williams

Wilmington, NC – Two companies still have proposals on the table to build a hotel for Wilmington's Convention Center, but the city says it will throw open the door to new developers if they don't come to terms soon.

A 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 has accepted two proposals for the project, but wants whoever's chosen to guarantee close to a million dollars of promise money if they back out of the project.

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.

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.

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