Borough, cruise line working out details for new downtown dock

An Alaska Marine Highway System ferry approaches Wrangell during the Fourth of July weekend. (Marc Lutz/Wrangell Sentinel)

By Larry Persily

Wrangell Sentinel

City Hall and American Cruise Lines continue negotiating the details of a development plan for the borough to fill in about two acres on the waterfront near the Nolan Center and for the company to spend $3 million building a new floating dock to accommodate its ships for overnight stays.

The port commission and planning and zoning commission both have recommended assembly approval of a borough tidelands lease for the dock with American Cruise Lines, which is based in Connecticut and operates a pair of 279-foot-long, 170-passenger vessels in Southeast during the summer.

The borough would borrow money for the waterfront fill project, estimated to cost between $2 million and $5 million to set in place steel piles and rock fill, Manager Mason Villarma said last week.

The debt on the borrowed money would be repaid by revenues from the tidelands lease and port fees, not taxpayers, he said.

In addition to creating an upland site for passenger loading and offloading and freight deliveries down a ramp to the new dock, the waterfront fill would create acreage to expand The Marine Service Center and potentially also fit in a new barge landing and freight staging area so that the borough could move that operation from its current location just off Front Street downtown.

The barge landing has been closed since March, when the borough discovered structural weaknesses in the nearly 50-year-old steel ramp. Freight lines have been using temporary quarters at the old sawmill dock near The Marine Service Center while the companies and borough officials discuss a permanent solution.

Villarma said last week the borough hopes to put together terms of the deal with American Cruise Lines by the end of this month or August to allow construction to start in 2026 and the new dock to go into service for the summer 2027 tourism season.

“That’s the target,” Kristin Meira, the company’s director of governmental affairs, said of the 2027 in-service date for the dock.

One of the details for the borough and cruise line still to resolve is use of the dock.

“While the dock would be privately constructed and operated, public access provisions are under negotiation,” according to a staff report presented to the planning and zoning commission at its June 19 meeting. “Key considerations include lease structure … public access, utility needs … (and) scheduling protocols.”

The terms for use of the dock, constructed by American Cruise Lines on borough-owned tidelands, are “still being worked out,” Meira said on July 3.

The planning and zoning commission on June 19 recommended assembly approval of the tidelands lease. The port commission did the same on June 18.

The tidelands lease, which requires assembly approval, would specify public access provisions and maintenance responsibilities of the dock and ramp, according to the staff report to the planning and zoning commission.

The company is looking for a 40-year lease to underpin its estimated $3 million investment, similar to long-term leases it has with the Columbia River port cities of Richland and Kalama, Washington.

Family-owned American Cruise Lines, founded with one ship in 1972, runs 22 vessels in Alaska, Puget Sound, Pacific Northwest rivers, the U.S. Southeast and New England, stopping at 140 ports.

The company plans to build a third vessel at its Maryland shipyard for its Alaska service, with the 100-passenger vessel joining the fleet in 2028 and boosting total port calls in Wrangell to more than 50 that summer, with a carrying capacity of almost 8,000 passengers.

To better accommodate its schedule and operations in Southeast, the company is working with Wrangell and Petersburg to build a small floating dock in each community. The cruise line’s ships generally overnight in Southeast ports, and reserved docking space would allow it to avoid anchoring offshore or moving away from the dock for other cruise ships.

• This article originally appeared in the Wrangell Sentinel.