If you’re a reflection of what surrounds you, then the Wilmington Convention Center, which celebrates 15 years in November, is looking pretty good.

“When we opened in 2010, we were surrounded by dirt – no marina, no amphitheater, no hotels, no apartments,” said Scott Frazzetta, general manager of the Wilmington Convention Center. “Now there’s life in every direction – concerts at Live Oak Bank Pavilion, new hotels, apartments, retail. It’s completely transformed this side of downtown, and it’s exciting to see how far Wilmington has come.”

Perched near the northern end of the Wilmington Riverwalk with 107,000 square feet of conference and event space, including its lawn, the Wilmington Convention Center was constructed to drive local and regional economic prosperity by attracting conventions and events whose attendees and visitors would spend their dollars locally.

The center at 10 Convention Center Drive opened its doors in November 2010. A year after the facility’s grand opening celebration, held Jan. 13, 2011, the $62 million, city-owned convention center, constructed over a three-year period, had “gotten good word of mouth from customers,” according to a Business Journal article. One tourism official claimed that “10 convention-type groups that came to Wilmington … were a direct result of our having the new convention center … (with) the potential of rebooking six for future events.”

Frazzetta has many memories from those early days, but none so vivid and lasting as, well, the facility’s kitchen.

“I was in love with our kitchen,” he said. “Everything was sparkling and brand new. My goal was to keep that kitchen as clean as it was from day one. … Fifteen years later, that kitchen still looks really good.”

But it was the building’s main concourse – and the foot traffic it would hopefully welcome – that may well have been the most important area of all in those pre-ribbon-cutting days. Did Frazzetta and his colleagues have worries about the success of Wilmington’s newest kid on the riverfront?

“No, not at all,” he said. “We came in ready to hit the ground running. From the beginning, the entire team brought fresh energy and a sense of ownership – learning the building, understanding the space and figuring out how to make experiences come together with new people, new plans, new everything. It was fun.”

In its first years of operation, the convention center would in fact see plenty of feet come through its concourse and other areas of the maritime-themed, LEED Silver-certified building. By June 2012, the center had logged 180 events and welcomed about 130,000 people.

As of October this year, the Wilmington Convention Center had hosted nearly 2,000 events and welcomed more than 1 million attendees.

“In the beginning, it was all about how big of an event we could handle,” said Frazzetta. “Every time we thought we’d reached our limit, we pushed it further. Our largest plated dinner was about 2,100 guests – a large military group that filled both the exhibit hall and ballroom. That was by our second or third year, and it was more than what we were designed for, but we got creative and made it work.”

But it wasn’t plates alone – it was the stories behind them that would soon become part of the emerging convention center narrative.

“We hosted so many weddings on the event lawn in those first few years,” said Frazzetta. “A lot of couples began their stories here – their first look, their ceremony, their reception – and those moments became part of the building’s story  too.”

The center took a big hit when, in 2020, the COVID pandemic shut down large events planned that year and that had been scheduled in subsequent months. In a December 2020 Business Journal article, officials said the center’s total event revenue loss from March to December, which included event revenue loss in fiscal year 2020 and year-to-date for fiscal year 2021, was a little over $2.8 million.

But the facility got through the crisis and continues to host major local and state conferences.
As for the convention center’s next chapters, Frazzetta said more space would likely be a priority.

“I’d love to see us expand. We’re using every square foot efficiently, but there are times when demand exceeds availability … so we’re missing opportunities,” he said. “An expansion would allow us to host larger conventions and keep groups in Wilmington that might otherwise need to look elsewhere – generating more hotel stays, more restaurant traffic and greater overall benefit for the city. The demand is there.”

A major addition to the area came in 2018 with the opening of the $40 million, 186-room Embassy Suites by Hilton Wilmington Riverfront adjacent to the convention center at 9 Estell Lee Place.

Frazzetta said he sees his role as the convention center’s new general manager in part as a kind of brand ambassador.

“My top priority is enhancing the guest experience by finding new ways to make every event memorable, even for groups that return year after year,” he said. We want visitors to leave with a true sense of Wilmington, whether that’s through our hospitality, the riverfront view, or local flavors featured on our catering menu.”

Kim Hufham, president and CEO of the Wilmington and Beaches Convention & Visitors Bureau, whose career in local tourism spans several decades, said she remembers the convention center’s predecessor, the historic Coastline Center, which was renovated in 1989 and adapted for use as a convention and event center. The renovation catalyzed discussions about the city’s need for more formalized professional meeting and gathering space.

“Its popularity set the stage for offsite meeting space and the need for a larger facility,” she said. “The Coastline Center was not the same type of footprint as the Wilmington Convention Center and was limited to uses of the space with meeting rooms and banquet space.”

Tourist attractions, area lodgings and local restaurants have benefitted from the exposure the Wilmington Convention Center has provided, Hufham said.

“The convention center has played an important part in the growth of tourism since its opening. (It) has allowed us to book larger citywide events using multiple hotels,” she said. “Many of these groups are national associations that have helped to increase the awareness of our destination to people outside of North Carolina who wouldn’t have known about Wilmington otherwise.”

Like Frazzetta, Hufham hopes for more square footage at 10 Convention Center Drive someday.
“Ideally, we would like to see the convention center double the current footprint, as there are many groups that are too large for us to accommodate now,” she said. “A larger exhibit hall and additional breakout rooms would be a great start.”

Any expansion would take some time.

“The city is at the very beginning stages of a feasibility and needs study that is looking at the market, demand and financial analysis of facility requirements to meet the future market needs in Wilmington,” said Amy Willis, communications manager for the city of Wilmington, in an email in October about the convention center. “Please note, there is also an option within these studies that is to do nothing, as well.”