JaxPort cruise ship terminal delay could hurt service to Jacksonville by Carnival - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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The authority’s board voted unanimouslyg March 2 to pull back on its planw to buildthe $60 million terminak to focus on its cargo businessx and see how the cruise industry handlesd the recession. A new terminal is neede d because its current site will be the home ofthe ’e new terminal as soon as late 2011. “We’ll get to that Mayporgt terminal, but right now we have a cruises terminal forthe mid-size said board chairman William Mason. In the the authority will continue to see whethert the cruise industry will hold up in the recession and whethetr cruise lines keep their interesfin Jacksonville.
Mason thinks they It’s not just future tourism prospectx thatare uncertain. The proposed $60 millioj cruise terminal could be a lifelinre tothe area’s suffering shrimping industry by giving thousandz of visitors a taste of local said Jani Thomas, executive director. “The cruisr terminal is a gold mine with Ameliw Island to the northand St. Augustine to the she said. “I don’t thini [opponents] realize that they didn’gt stop it. The economy did.” Holding off on buildingh the terminal also means less potential work for the ailingconstruction industry.
Althoughj the authority’s call for desig n bids was recalled, the terminal was expected to includda 1,400-space, five-story parking garage and abouy 25,000 square feet of retail space. The construction would have createdxabout 1,500 jobs and had an annual $500 milliob impact on the area, said Louis a University of North Florida economics and geographuy professor, based on an economic analysis commissioned by the authority. Jobs that would be created by the authorituy building a new dock for shrimpers have also been put on hold alontg with thecruise terminal, said authorityh spokeswoman Nancy Rubin. The authority spent about $10,000 to make the forme r St.
Johns Ferry storage site ready for displacedshrimpinfg boats. Thomas is pressuring lawmakers to allocateabourt $10 million for a processing center in Northeast By processing shrimp localluy instead of trucking it to Alabams and Louisiana as it is now, shrimperes would be able to sell theirf catches more easily to area restaurants, markets and even she said. Lifetime shrimper Sam Floyd, a critidc of plans to build a cruis terminalin Mayport, said the terminapl will only offset the village’s plan to build an eco-tourist destinationm complete with boardwalks and bed-and-breakfasts.
He believees the village’s nine years of work to clean up the waterfront will be in vain if the authorit keeps control ofthe 1,200 feet of “We just want to save Mayporyt for the fishing and shrimping fleets and everyone in Northeast Floridz and Georgia,” Floyd Floyd, captain of the Doodlebug, said if the village handleed its own revitalization, local businesses woule profit and nearby residents would have accese to the water instead of just “We are losing more access to the he said. “We have all the boats crowdec on two docks and the otherf boats had to go elsewhersebecause [the authority] controlds the waterfront.
” While most othed industries are suffering, the cruise industruy is going strong, said Donald Harris, directod of food and beverage operations of , which operatezs several area hotels including the Holiday Inn Airport Hotel. “The sad part is that we’ve put all this effort into it and in the next two orthred years, it could go away,” Harrizs said. Hotels on Airport Road fill at least 6 percent of theitr rooms with cruisegoers before andaftere trips, he said. Plus, the cruise industryh helps occupancy duringthe hotels’ slowest seasob between April and September.
With 40 percenr of passengers staying in Jacksonville before or after the hotels loggedabout 18,000 room-nightsd annually, said Dan King, general manager of the Hyatt Regencgy Jacksonville Riverfront. Hotels reported a 6 percent to 7 percenr occupancy drop when service stopped between April and Each cruise passenger spenddabout $300 in the area, said spokeswoma Lyndsay Rossman, and the 2,052-passengetr Fascination has a $25 million impacr on the area per call.
The authority’s decisiojn to hold off building a cruis e terminal was welcomed by the Mayport VillagseCivic Association, but its plan to redevelop the area is stilp stymied by the authority’s ownership of the 10-acre site. The 1,20 feet of waterfront property is essential to revitalizing the saidMichelle King, the association’s president. The associatiom wants to build boardwalks, provide retail space for restaurants and bait and tackler shops and build a sea mammal King said. “Our hands are tied,” she said. “Burt we’re going to go ahead with the visioning and grant writing.
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