Over the last few years, the city of Wilmington and New Hanover County have experienced a tremendous building boom that has affected all aspects of life and culture throughout the area. However, with excellent shopping, outstanding restaurants, antiques to be discovered and a view of the river wherever you go, downtown Wilmington’s booming tourist industry vies for visitor attention with the nearby beaches, and remains the focal point of the county.
Perhaps the best thing about downtown Wilmington — and something that separates it from the rest of the city and nearby communities — is its pleasant walkability. Streets lined with shops and restaurants are easily traversed, and the Riverwalk is a great place to stroll, grab a hot dog from a street vendor, listen to free music and watch the river traffic. Nearly a mile long, the Riverwalk stretches from the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce building just north of the Coast Line Convention Center to south of Chandlers Wharf. Complete with wide, patio-style areas and pocket parks with benches, the Riverwalk offers spectacular views of the river, especially at night.
During the day, downtown Wilmington is quaint and charming, but at night it comes alive in a whole new way. Dance clubs, jazz bars, local and touring musicals, venues for rock 'n' roll, rhythm and blues and more can be found in the 55-block area of the downtown commercial district (see our Nightlife chapter).
Going east, away from the river, Wilmington’s demeanor starts to change. Besides spreading across the peninsula and absorbing much of northern New Hanover County, Wilmington is now the geographic coastal center for shopping. In numerous malls and plazas, the area boasts national chains such as Target, Barnes & Noble, Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Dillard's, Belk’s, Sears, JC Penney, Kohl's, Home Depot and many others, in addition to upscale and specialty stores, all of which have enhanced the region's shopping choices considerably (see our Shopping chapter).
With all this new growth and the continuing popularity of the area, real estate is a lively business. "Plantations," the new name for gated communities and neighborhoods, are developed so quickly that natives have been heard to say they occasionally get lost on once-familiar streets because of the changing landscape (see our Real Estate and Neighborhoods chapter). Housing choices are as diverse as a golf course condo to a house on the Intracoastal Waterway to Wilmington’s extensive Historic District, which is made up of approximately 230 city blocks and has many full-time residents. A stroll through the Historic District, by the way, reveals beautifully restored homes and commercial buildings, many of them antebellum, lining the shaded streets. A number of buildings bear plaques indicating their age: red for 75 to 100 years and black if the structure is more than 100 years old. As more of the city's older homes are restored, and condominiums and townhouses are added, both the Historic District and the downtown population will continue to grow.
Wilmington has always been the educational hub of the southeastern North Carolina coast, with the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and Cape Fear Community College within its boundaries. Miller-Motte Business College and a branch of Mount Olive College are also in Wilmington (see our Higher Education and Research chapter).
The city also holds the distinction of being the cultural center for the whole southeast coast. Performances by touring and home-based theater, dance and music companies enliven the local stages of Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts, the oldest community theater tradition in the United States, and Kenan Auditorium, the Cultural Arts Building and Trask Coliseum on the campus of UNCW. Writers, artists and musicians are evident in abundance. Private galleries abound and in addition, the Louise Wells Cameron Museum of Art offers a showcase of regional and international artists (see our Arts chapter). The Community Arts Center is constantly enhancing the arts scene by offering classes and sponsoring productions for adults and children, and numerous theater groups are active throughout the year. Museums, such as the Cape Fear Museum and the Children’s Museum (see our Attractions and Arts chapters) add to the mix.
The film industry lends an exciting opportunity for spotting the occasional celebrity or just watching the process of making movies. For many years, filmmaking accounted for a significant portion of the local economy and it still has the potential for growth because of Wilmington's well-established film industry infrastructure. The cornerstone of the local film industry, EUE/Screen Gems Studios, is complemented by a seasoned crew base, an active regional film commission and a large talent pool. Since the first movie filmed here in 1983 (Dino DeLaurentiis' Firestarter), Wilmington has been home to more than 300 movies and seven television series, including Matlock, Dawson's Creek and One Tree Hill. Stars spotted over the years have included, among others, Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Katherine Hepburn, Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger, Patrick Swayze, Julie Harris, John Travolta and Anthony Hopkins. Linda Lavin, Broadway star and a woman known affectionately as "Alice" from the '70s TV series, lives downtown and works closely with the Community Arts Center. Pat Hingle, a Hollywood character actor for many years, lives in Carolina Beach and is still active in the film scene.
Another major economic influence lies just south of the city on the river. It is North Carolina’s principal deep-water port, the North Carolina State Port at Wilmington. The port and some of the industrial complexes north of downtown host hundreds of ships and barges from many nations every year. The river recently has been dredged and deepened so that larger cargo ships and some of the cruise ships can now dock in Wilmington.
