After a delay of several months caused by a legal challenge that is still pending, the city of Wilmington finalized the sale of land to a firm that plans to build a $33.6 million Embassy Suites Hotel next to the Wilmington Convention Center.

Mayor Bill Saffo and other city officials joined representatives from Harmony Hospitality Inc. at City Hall on Wednesday to sign closing documents on the .76-acre riverfront site, which Harmony bought for $578,820, according to a news release from the city.

"Today marks a milestone in our 10-year-long effort to bring a first-class convention center and hotel to downtown Wilmington. We're already halfway there since the convention center opened, and now we look forward to working with Harmony to get this top quality hotel built so we can realize the full economic impact that will benefit our entire region," Saffo said in the release.

Sotherly Hotels, owner of Hilton Wilmington Riverside, had challenged the city's agreement to sell the land to Harmony. In February, a lawyer for Sotherly cited a 2006 consent decree which he said forbids the city from subsidizing a private hotel’s operations. Matthew B. Davis, an attorney with Wilmington-based Marshall, Williams & Gorham LLP representing Sotherly Hotels, wrote in a letter that the city was violating the decree with its proposed “below market purchase price” offered to Harmony Hospitality.

A Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the city in June, according to Wednesday's news release, but the ruling was appealed to the N.C. Court of Appeals, where it is still pending.

Embassy Suites plans to build a 186-room, full-service Embassy Suites Hotel that will include a restaurant, bar, pool and meeting space and be located next to the convention center, which opened in late 2010.

Once the hotel is built, according to the news release, it will provide the city with more than $830,000 a year in tax and parking revenues, the release said.