Wilmington Marriott opens; more hotels on the way

The old Beneficial Building at 1300 N. Market Street began its new life as a 96-suite hotel Thursday.

The all-suite Residence Inn by Marriott, owned and operated by Canon Hospitality Management, offers studio and one-bedroom suites. Designed for stays of five nights or more, each unit has a fully equipped kitchen with a coffeemaker, microwave oven and residential-sized appliances.

The hotel includes a fitness center and two meeting rooms with a total of 1,590 square feet of meeting space to accommodate functions of up to 49 people. The hotel will feature an onsite restaurant offering guests a taste of local flavor as well as locally brewed beverages.

It is, the company says, the first hotel to open in downtown Wilmington in nearly 20 years.

More are on the way as the city's hotel boom is only beginning.

As the Residence Inn was preparing to open, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control issued a public notice Wednesday that negotiations were underway for a Brownfields Development Agreement with two hotel LLCs on the Riverfront.

DNREC is required to issue a public notice within 20 days after entering into BDA negotiations. A BDA is an agreement between DNREC and a developer of a brownfield with respect to a Certified Brownfield Site that sets forth a scope of work and schedule of remedial activities during the development of the site.

Brownfields sites are vacant or underutilized properties where development is hindered by possible environmental contamination. The practice is pretty standard for development along the Riverfront.

DNREC is negotiating a BDA with Christina River Hotel XXXV, LLC and Wilmington Riverfront Hotel XXXIV, LLC regarding a site at 820 Justison Street near the Chase Center and Westin hotel.

Both of those LLCs are registered to the Buccini/Pollin Group, the city's dominant developer that built the Westin and plans a 100-room Homewood Suites by Hilton and a 200-room Marriott hotel.

Environmental regulators authorized at least $12 million in state cleanup subsidies to support the Riverfront recovery and Buccini/Pollin Group projects, many sited on contaminated former industrial sites or properties too close to pollution to ignore, The News Journal reported in 2012.

The developer gave no comment on the BDA or on a timeline for the hotels when reached Thursday.

BPG is also currently renovating Hotel duPont.

Joining BPG on the Riverfront is a Hyatt Place to be operated by the ONIX Group in a partnership with Big Fish, the Riverfront restaurant that will be attached to the Hyatt by a banquet room connecting to two structures.

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Contact reporter Jeff Neiburg at (302) 983-6772, jneiburg@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @Jeff_Neiburg.