No news was good news this week for the long-awaited Wilmington Convention Center hotel, according to city officials. 

The final potential legal hurdle for the hotel was cleared Tuesday when no appeal to a recent court decision was filed with the N.C. Supreme Court before the end of a 35-day deadline, according to a city of Wilmington news release Wednesday.

Last month, 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.

"The city’s position has been validated at all levels of the NC courts and we are now looking forward to working with the hotel developer to begin construction on the hotel as quickly as possible so that we can begin to realize the economic benefits of this important project,” Wilmington mayor Bill Saffo said in the city's release Wednesday.

Last year, the Wilmington City Council agreed to sell land to Harmony Hospitality Inc., which plans to build a $33.6 million, 186-room Embassy Suites Hotel next to the Wilmington Convention Center. Sotherly Hotels, owner of Hilton Wilmington Riverside, challenged that deal, saying the city was violating a 2006 decree with its proposed “below market purchase price” offered to Harmony.

The city release said much of the city's legal argument that has been upheld hinged upon the economic growth expected to come as a result of the hotel, including an estimated $6.4 million in property and sales tax revenues over the next decade, 364 hotel construction jobs and 207 jobs when the hotel is completed.