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Hospitality

At Wilmington Convention Center, Flo Cost $370K In Event Revenue

By Cece Nunn, posted Oct 11, 2018
The Wilmington Convention Center is shown Sept. 19 after Hurricane Florence. (File photo)
As the city deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, the good news for the Wilmington Convention Center is that staff members were back in their offices earlier this week, preparing for an event scheduled for Friday. 

The bad news is that the center lost more than $370,000 in gross event revenue as a result of the storm, said Fredia Brady, the convention center's general manager, in an email Tuesday.

The convention center's total revenue for the fiscal year that ended June 30 was nearly $3.8 million.

As Hurricane Florence approached landfall in the Wilmington area the week of Sept. 14, the NC Realtors had to cancel state events the organization had been planning for two years that were scheduled to take place at the Wilmington Convention Center and fill hotel rooms in the city that weekend.

While the revenue figure has been calculated, "the overall economic impact to the city is unknown at this time i.e. hotels, restaurants etc.," Brady said in the email. 

The city does not yet have a dollar-figure estimate as to how much damage the convention center sustained during the storm, according to an email from city spokesman Dylan Lee on Thursday.

Brady said water damage recovery and demolition is complete at the center, and the construction schedule to replace drywall in damaged areas is being reviewed.

The city is "currently working to expedite replacement of damaged carpet in areas impacted," Brady said Tuesday.

She said the center was open and back to business.

Asked about what impact the storm might have in the future on the center's efforts to bring larger conferences and events to Wilmington, Brady said, "At this time, we do not see an impact."
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