Construction on the hotel adjacent to the Wilmington Convention Center is expected to begin early in 2016, but the long-awaited project cleared its final hurdle in July of this year.

That’s when city officials announced that plans for the 186-room Embassy Suites hotel could move forward, after when no appeal to a recent court decision was filed with the N.C. Supreme Court before the end of a 35-day deadline.

In June, the N.C. Court of Appeals upheld a ruling in the city’s favor regarding the sale of land where the hotel will be built, next to the convention center on Nutt Street in downtown Wilmington. At issue was a 2006 legal agreement that outlined how the privately owned hotel could be built. Last year, the Wilmington City Council approved an agreement with Harmony Hospitality Inc., to buy land and construct the $33.6 million project.

“The convention center hotel was envisioned as an overall component to our strategy to attract more convention business,” said Ed Wolverton, president and CEO of Wilmington Downtown Inc.

Many convention groups require an adjacent hotel when choosing a center to hold their events, he explained.

“There’s clearly a longer-term strategy to grow the hospitality business, in downtown in particular, and with the opening of the Courtyard by Marriott last year, the Hampton Inn under construction now, the planned convention center hotel and then the Hotel Indigo – all of those [downtown hotels] will meet the growing demand and enhance the hospitality sector impact in downtown,” Wolverton said.

The Embassy Suites is expected to contribute to the economy in a variety of other ways, as well, including generating $6.4 million in property and sales tax revenues over 10 years and creating more than 340 construction jobs and 207 jobs at the hotel itself when complete, according to the city.

The new Embassy Suites is planned to be eight stories with ballroom space, a lobby and an indoor pool on the ground floor, according to the latest site plan. The second floor is expected to include a riverfront restaurant with a terrace.

A new hotel planned for downtown in walking distance of the convention center was announced Dec. 10. Poteat  Hospitality Associates LLC of Laurinburg and Big Dawg LLC, the operator of the Best Western Coastline Inn in  Wilmington, plan to build a 125-room Aloft Hotel franchise by Starwood Hotels, incorporating the six-story structure into the Coastline Conference and Event Center on Nutt Street, a news release said. Construction of the $25 million project is expected to begin in early 2016.

Click here to see a list of all Top 10 stories.