WILMINGTON, North Carolina — Downtown Wilmington’s newest hotel, Courtyard by Marriott Wilmington Downtown, opened its six stories and 124 rooms last month.
Hotel amenities include 1,879 square feet of meeting space, a corporate boardroom and business library, a covered and uncovered patio, a fire pit, a fitness center, an outdoor swimming pool and complimentary wireless Internet service throughout the facility. The brand’s signature bar and restaurant concept, the Bistro, will offer breakfast and dinner, as well as Starbucks Coffee, to hotel guests and the general public. Valet parking will also be available.
Prior to its opening, the hotel had already secured 20 wedding groups and received numerous inquiries from business travelers about on-site amenities and availability. The hotel will be managed by Greensboro-based CN Hotels, Inc.
Earlier last month, Virginia-based Harmony Hospitality also received unanimous approval from the city of Wilmington to move forward with the development of the 186-room Embassy Suites adjacent to the Wilmington Convention Center. The hotel will consist of 161,719 square feet total, stand 95 feet tall and include a 5,900-square-foot restaurant and 6,600 square feet of meeting space, as well as an indoor pool and fitness center. Initial groundbreaking is scheduled for June, with a grand opening scheduled for August 2015.
The Silver LEED-certified Wilmington Convention Center, the largest convention center on the North Carolina coast, offers meeting capabilities for 20 to 2,000 people. It has a variety of spaces, including a 30,000-square-foot exhibit hall, a 12,000-square-foot ballroom, more than 15,000 square feet of prefunction space and nearly 6,000 square feet of additional meeting space. Attendees can feel the riverfront breeze on the 12,000-square-foot waterfront event lawn or take in the sophisticated maritime design of the building and the vintage photographs located throughout that celebrate Wilmington’s historic past.
Convention attendees can explore the city’s walkable historic river district. It features more than 200 restaurants, shops and attractions in the downtown area alone. Attendees can also take advantage of the building’s proximity to three island beaches: Carolina Beach, Kure Beach and Wrightsville Beach. The area is home to nearly 8,000 hotel rooms and suites with a variety of settings, among them Wilmington’s downtown Riverfront and the sea.
