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City tourism officials chasing bigger conventions

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Shovels pushed the first dirt for Wilmington’s next downtown hotel last Friday, and for city tourism officials, the work at selling Wilmington as a host for several larger conventions and trade shows has already begun.

“We can now go after more regional conventions and shows and even some of the national groups,” said Kim Hufham, president of the Wilmington and Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau.

City officials and business leaders gathered behind the Wilmington Convention Center on Feb. 12, bundled in jackets to withstand the freezing cold and drizzly weather, to break ground on the 186-room Embassy Suites Hotel.

A visibly excited Wilmington  Mayor Bill Saffo pumped up the crowd and recounted more than a dozen years of work and planning it took to get the point where officials were ready to pose with the golden shovels, signifying that construction on the hotel was ready to begin.

“How sweet it is! We are finally here,” Saffo exclaimed at the groundbreaking, referencing the delays and legal fights that stalled the development for years. “It was a long, hard road to get here.”

For Hufham, whose job it is to sell the city for conventions, the sales pitch has already begun, as the hotel is expected to be open by spring 2017, and the conventions the hotel attracts are usually scheduled two to three years out.

“We’re already working with a couple of groups,” she said.

The final delay ended in June 2015, when the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the city after the land deal for the hotel was challenged in 2014 by both a resident and Sotherly Hotels, Inc., owner of the Wilmington Hilton Riverside. The suit alleged that the $578,820 price the city charged Harmony Hospitality for the three-fourths acre of riverfront property was below value and, thus, the city was unfairly subsidizing the project. The city contended the price was advertised and offered to qualified bidders on three occasions, with only Harmony Hospitality making the offer.

The ordeal leading up to the the long-awaited convention center hotel groundbreaking went back further than the lawsuit, as Saffo recalled the 2003 Wilmington City Council that first began working on plans for a convention center.

“It would have happened quicker, if not for the recession,” Saffo said. “It’s the culmination of a decade of work.”

The convention center opened in 2011, but without a nearby hotel to provide lodging for convention goers. Saffo commended past elected leaders and city officials, whom he said followed through with the plan to bring a top-tier hotel to the location.

“There was a consistent vision,” Saffo said. “No matter who was elected, they stuck with it. We could have gone with a lesser hotel, but that was not in the council’s vision.”

The hotel is expected to generate $6.4 million in tax revenue over 10 years, create 346 construction jobs and 207 hotel jobs once completed.

In looking forward, Saffo said in an interview that while the hotel deal was a hard-fought accomplishment, there will one day be other projects the city can pursue to improve tourism, economic development and quality of life.

Saffo said he could envision a public-private partnership to bring a minor league baseball team to Wilmington. Adding more venues for music and concerts is another direction the city could go.

“The music scene is picking up steam here,” Saffo said, referencing the popularity of the shows at the Brooklyn Arts Center and Greenfield Lake Amphitheater.

Fitting into that plan could include the development of the northern waterfront park on 6.5 acres of land the city purchased for $4.1 million in November 2013. The city is still seeking funding for the park’s development, but plans could include an amphitheater that could seat up to 7,000 audience members and host events and concerts.

“We could bring a band like the Red Hot Chili Peppers here,” he said.

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