Wilmington Riverfront to get second hotel

After waiting for years to get just one hotel built along the Wilmington Riverfront, a second hotel is now planned just a few hundred feet from where the first opened in 2014.

Three years ago, city officials celebrated the long-awaited grand opening of the Westin hotel adjacent to the Chase Center in the heart of the Wilmington Riverfront. That was the first new hotel to open in Wilmington in decades. Now plans have been announced for a second hotel, this time adjacent to the nearby Big Fish Grill restaurant. 

The ONIX Group along with the Big Fish Grill Group will open the first hotel directly along the city’s riverwalk which hugs the banks of the Christina River. 

“It is good to see this continuing interest in the Riverfront,” said Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki, who previously ran the Riverfront Development Corporation. He said the project “will create a first-class small banquet facility that will add tremendously to our city’s hospitality scene.”

Work on the seven-story, 122-room hotel is expected to begin by the end of summer. The hotel should open its doors to guests by next summer. It’s expected to cost $23 million.

“We are thrilled that Big Fish Restaurant Group has chosen to expand its successful brand on the Riverfront,” said Megan McGlinchey, Executive Director of the Riverfront Development Corporation. “With the addition of this new hotel, Wilmington will attract more corporate and leisure business, especially to the nearby Chase Center on the Riverfront. We look forward to a great working relationship with them.”

The developers have not yet selected a hotel brand, but ONIX Group currently runs hotels under the Hilton, Marriott and Choice franchise brands in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida.