Cape Fear Coast
From A Historic Riverfront To Graceful Beaches
For such a relatively small place, the Cape Fear Coast of North Carolina delivers a a big list of desirable options, according to local hospitality industry officials. While the beaches of Carolina Beach, Kure Beach and Wrightsville Beach offer the serenity of strolling on pristine sands, exploring a sea turtle habitat or watching the sunset from the end of a dock, Wilmington offers everything from shopping, restaurants, museums and the charms of a historic downtown to gardens, plantations and Civil War battlefields, said Kim Hufham, president/CEO of the Wilmington/Cape Fear Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB).
"We offer the best of both worlds," Hufham said. "We have 31 miles of beautiful beaches, but we also have our beautiful historic riverfront downtown area on the Cape Fear River."
The area also offers the best of convention and event venues, she said. "We have meeting facilities from oceanfront to riverfront, and everything in between. The ambiance and amenities not only make us a great destination for meetings, but we're also the type of destination where you can bring your family and have a lot of fun."
Hufham explained why the diverse but intimate Cape Fear Coast is so popular with the planners who discover it. "We offer a complete package," she said. "We offer something for everyone. Our climate is also a great draw, but so is our service—not just the services of the CVB, but also the services that we offer at our hotels. We have a very strong hospitality industry here, and our hotels really go beyond what is expected of them to serve meeting groups and make them feel welcome."
The major news for planners these days is the much-anticipated opening, scheduled for late next year or early 2010, of the new 95,000-square-foot Wilmington Convention Center that will feature 30,000 square feet of exhibit space, a 12,000-square-foot ballroom, 12,000 square feet of pre-function space, three breakout rooms totaling 1,500 square feet, and 9,000 square feet of outdoor meeting and event space.
The new facility will be located on the Cape Fear River, just north of the 272-room Hilton Wilmington Riverside, which features 20,000 square feet of meeting space. According to Barry Eagle, area director of sales and marketing for MHI Hospitality, the property will complete a $10 million renovation this month, which includes the creation of a new signature restaurant, "innovations," which opened in February and serves authentic Low Country cuisine. A new Ruth's Chris Steak House will make its debut in the area on June 5. "Once you arrive at the Hilton, you don't need a vehicle any more," Eagle said. "There are more than 50 restaurants and shops you can walk to. We have all the local attractions from horse and carriage rides to the battleship
USS North Carolina, art galleries, a railroad museum—the list goes on and on. The thing we sell is that we put you in the middle of everything."
MHI's other properties include the 50-unit, all-suite Riverview Suites, located across the street from the Hilton, with no meeting space, and 158-unit Shell Island Oceanfront Suites at Wrightsville Beach, located approximately 10 miles from downtown Wilmington, with 6,000 square feet of meeting space. Shell Island's amenities include a bird and wildlife sanctuary. "At Shell Island, we probably have the most expansive beach of any resort on the East Coast," Eagle said. "At Riverview Suites, we give you the privacy of your own home. You don't feel like you're living in a hotel. And every suite has a balcony overlooking the river."
Key Info · Sales Tax: 6.5 percent
· Hotel Tax: 3 percent
· Transportation: The Wilmington/Cape Fear Coast area offers a total inventory of 4,200 meeting-quality hotels rooms and can accommodate groups from 25 to 400, CVB officials said. |
The Hilton is not the only meetings-focused property in the region boasting a new look. The 150-room Blockade Runner Beach Resort on Wrightsville Beach, with 6,000 square feet of meeting space, according to Sales Manager Jason St. Clair, completed a renovation last month that also included a makeover of its East restaurant. "Blockade Runner is a great place to hold a meeting because the island is largely residential," St. Clair said. "There are no theme parks or water parks. It's very quiet. We've got a beautiful location on an island in a quaint little beach town, but right across the bridge, just a few minutes away, you've got downtown Wilmington with its cobblestone streets, excellent restaurants and great nightlife." The resort features wireless Internet access in all guest rooms and meeting spaces, audio/visual capabilities, and a full-service food and beverage department.
Nearby, the 184-room Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort completed a major renovation in April 2007 and offers 8,500 square feet of meeting space, including the 4,100-square-foot Lumina Ballroom. "We are located on the beach on the Atlantic Ocean, so you can just look out your window and get a beautiful view," said Maureen Donovan, director of sales and marketing. "We get quite a bit of association meeting business, from 50 to 200 attendees. I think our advantage is the flexibility of our meeting space. We can accommodate anything from small breakouts to a large general session. But when the meeting is on a break or at the end of the day, attendees can enjoy a relaxing walk on the beach or sit in a rocking chair on our terrace overlooking the Atlantic."
New properties on the scene include a 125-room Hampton Inn Eastwood and a 111-unit, all-suite TownePlace Suites, both scheduled to open by late spring in the Eastwood Road section of Wilmington. "It's kind of a new area at the end of Interstate 40," Hufham said.
"These new properties will be particularly good for our SMERF (social, military, educational, religious and fraternal) market."
In 2010, a new 191-room Hilton Garden Inn at Carolina Beach, featuring meeting space for groups of up to 250, will make its debut, Hufham said, adding that other limited-service options include the 144-room Courtyard by Marriott - Carolina Beach, which offers 3,000 square feet of meeting space and opened five years ago.
Located two miles from Carolina Beach and five miles from downtown Wilmington is the 26-suite Beau Rivage Resort and Golf Club, with 5,300 square feet of meeting space. Beau Rivage is one of only a few resorts between the Outer Banks of North Carolina and the South Carolina state line that features its own championship golf course, according to Reanne Scott, director of sales and marketing. The resort, Scott said, "has all the conference amenities a planner needs. We can do a poolside reception for 100 at our Tiki bar and we can accommodate 1,000 for an outside event just off the first tee of our golf course."
Additional meeting venues and hotels in the area include Wilmington's 10,000-square-foot Coastline Convention Center; the 53-room Best Western Coastline Inn and Convention Center, with 10,150 square feet of meeting space; the Holiday Inn Wilmington, a property with 124 guest rooms and 5,000 square feet of meeting space; and Landfall Park Hampton Inn and Suites, which offers 120 guest rooms and two meeting rooms with a capacity of 80 guests, theater style.
Bald Head Island
Located 20 minutes from Southport, N.C., which is 30 minutes south of Wilmington, Bald Head Island is accessible only by ferry. With a permanent resident population of just 120, the 12,000-acre island is a sanctuary from the harried day-to-day world most meeting attendees live in.
Trisha Howarth, Bald Head Island's hospitality sales and marketing director, explained Bald Head's unique appeal to meeting planners. "Teambuilding and the focus that they will get just by being removed from the mainland. There are no distractions except for what they do as a group. Bald Head is a very unique place that has recreational activities like kayaking and golf. No matter what you're doing, you're surrounded by nature."
Featuring 100 private rental homes that average three bedrooms each, Bald Head's accommodations total 300 sleeping rooms. The largest home can accommodate 14. Maximum group size is 200. Six individual meeting rooms total 8,000 square feet. A full-service food and beverage department specializes in barbecues or oyster roasts. The island delivers almost unparalleled escapism, Howarth said, since 10,000 of its acres have been set aside as a nature reserve.
