On Thursday, city officials got their first look at the Port City’s new Hotel Indigo development.

Members of Northern Riverfront Marina and Hotel, LLC met Thursday morning with Wilmington Development Services’ Technical Review Committee (TRC) staff for a conceptual review of the future development.

Hotel Indigo — a boutique hotel that is part of the InterContinental Hotels Group — is slated for construction in the northern downtown area and would serve as a key anchor for a 35-acre development project that will boast a 204-slip marina and numerous restaurants.

During the concept review, developers, architects and engineers meet with city staff to hash out details surrounding the pending development, and determine what will be needed to comply with city codes and standards.

Howard Resnik, a civil engineer with Wilmington-based Coastal Site Design said his firm is in the process of completing a necessary site plan for the development.

During the meeting, Thomas D. Calloway, Jr., principal architect with Winston-Salem-based CJMW Architecture said that pending any updates to the project’s original plan, site construction could begin this summer.

“We helped develop the concept a year ago with this team, and it has continued to evolve,” Calloway said. 

This would not be the first time Hotel Indigo has surfaced in discussions with Wilmington city officials.

A subsidiary of InterContinental Hotels Group — Wilmington River Group, LLC —approached the city in 2009 with a proposal to construct a Hotel Indigo as part of the convention center project.

But the group backed out after failing to produce the proper paperwork on a $1 million financial surety in the form of a letter of credit, a bond or cash — one of the city’s requirements for construction at that time.

Now a different team — Asheville-based Chestnut Street Hospitality, LLC — is moving Hotel Indigo’s development forward in the new development.

Resnik said Chestnut Street Hospitality develops and manages Asheville’s Hotel Indigo, and the group would oversee management and development for its new location in Wilmington.

Officials with Chestnut Street Hospitality could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.  

Plans call for the nine-story, 132-room hotel to be built between Hanover and Nutt streets, diagonally across from the Wilmington Convention Center and future hotel complex. The site would also include 15,600-square feet of space fronting Nutt Street that will accommodate three restaurants and 99 parking spaces housed above the restaurant space.

The hotel would be accessible from its parking lot and from entrances on Nutt, Front and Hanover streets — all located on various elevations throughout the proposed development.    

Developers plan to have the hotel complete by spring 2014, with the marina set to sail by spring 2013, bringing 150 full- and part-time jobs to downtown upon completion.

InterContinental Hotels Group operates about 40 Hotel Indigo properties across the globe, including two North Carolina locations: one in downtown Asheville and one in the Research Triangle Area near Durham.