Wrangell, cruise line plan to have new dock ready for 2027 season
- Wrangell Sentinel
- 22 minutes ago
- 3 min read
By Jonathon Dawe
Wrangell Sentinel
The borough has officially partnered with a growing cruise line to bring a new dock to the community. The borough assembly voted unanimously on Jan. 7 to approve a 40-year tidelands lease for American Cruise Lines (ACL), which will build the dock.
The decision followed months of negotiations and a public work session.
The lease allows the company to build and operate a floating dock on the downtown waterfront. Borough Manager Mason Villarma described the deal as a “custom fit” for Wrangell. He has been working on the plan with the cruise line since April 2025.
When the cruise line is not using the dock, residents will have access to the facility which the borough will control during the off-season.
Villarma noted the facility will be a drive-down dock that fishermen and others can use. “That is something that has been discussed for quite a while,” he said.
ACL’s ships stay in port overnight, prompting their push for a new dock to accommodate their vessels without getting bumped by other ships needing access to the existing, larger downtown dock.
Villarma confirmed on Jan. 11 that ACL plans to repurpose the hull of the American Empress for the floating dock. Tideline Construction crews at the company’s 6-Mile work site are currently removing the superstructure from the 360-foot-long paddlewheeler to reduce it to a 300-foot platform. The cruise line owns the 23-year-old ship, which has not seen service in a few years.
The cruise line will pay for all construction and maintenance of the new dock.
However, the borough is responsible for filling in a portion of the tidelands to provide access to the dock.
“The dock will be positioned kind of sort of toward the middle of our tideland fill project, so kind of outside City Hall ... in the middle between the Nolan Center and the existing barge ramp,” Villarma said.
The assembly previously authorized issuing $4 million in revenue bonds for waterfront fill projects. The manager said fill work could cost about $2.5 million.
The total fill area is “roughly about two acres.” He clarified that “the overall cost or the competitive bids that we receive will ultimately inform how much of that two acres that we get to.”
The borough intends to approach the fill in stages, based on funding availability.
“The first step will be filling that middle portion out to give ACL access, and then we would fill … all the way to where the barge ramp abutment is,” Villarma said.
If funding remains, the borough would “fill in all the way to the side where the Marine Service Center is.”
The bond debt will be repaid through port revenues, not tax dollars.
However, if bond funding is insufficient to pay for that much fill, Villarma said the borough has a “multifaceted funding approach” and is already submitting for additional federal grant funds to expand the Marine Service Center.
Construction on the fill and dock approach is expected to move quickly once permits are secured, with the partners aiming to complete the project by May 2027.
The borough expects significant revenue from the first year of full operations at the new dock.
Conservative estimates, according to the borough manager, include $50,000 in lease fees on the tidelands, $54,000 in property taxes, $60,000 in passenger fees, and $45,000 in docking fees. These numbers assume at least two ships will visit Wrangell a total of more than 40 times a year.
Revenue could grow even higher when the cruise line adds a third vessel in 2028.
American Cruise Lines is building a third ship for its Southeast Alaska business. The two ships currently working Southeast are 170 passengers each. The third ship, at 100 passengers, is expected to enter service in 2028.
The family-owned company runs 22 vessels in Alaska, Puget Sound, Pacific Northwest rivers, the U.S. Southeast and New England, stopping at 140 ports.
“At the rate we are planning to add ships, we recognized the need to invest in different ports,” said company president Charles Robertson during the Jan. 7 assembly meeting. He said the Wrangell project is a “flagship venture.”
Wrangell is not the only location on the company’s list for new docks. The cruise line is in talks with Petersburg and Haines about similar long-term dock leases.
• This article originally appeared in the Wrangell Sentinel.
