There’s an old ferry terminal sitting idle on the quiet waterfront of Bar Harbor, Me., but perhaps not for long.
A
consultant hired by the town and the Maine Port Authority to whittle
down the potential use options of the 4.5-acre site has recommended that
the authority acquire the land parcel, construct a new terminal and
build a pier to accommodate two large cruise ships.
The existing terminal has an interesting history.
Back
in the early 1950s, the Canadian government announced it wanted to
develop a maritime transportation ferry station between Nova Scotia and
the U.S.
Bar Harbor competed with
other coastal towns and was selected as the homeport for the Bluenose
car and truck ferry from Bar Harbor to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
According
to a report from the consultant, Miami-based Bermello Ajamil &
Partners, in 1980 the Canadian government decided to divest itself from
the ferry operation and engaged Bay Ferries to operate the vessel.
Bay Ferries eventually replaced the Bluenose with a high-speed catamaran, called the Cat, in 2002.
Since
its inception, the service had relied on subsidies from both provincial
and federal Canadian governments. But the subsidy was discontinued in
2009, and the Cat service was suspended.
John
H. Henshaw, executive director of the Maine Port Authority, said that
Marine Atlantic, a Canadian crown corporation, owns the defunct
terminal.
Henshaw said that the Bar Harbor Town Council supports the idea of a cruise pier and a redevelopment of the waterfront land.
“There are a number of issues that will need to be resolved, including ownership, operation and financing,” he said.
Bermello
estimated that it would cost $6.2 million to repair the old ferry
terminal, and $16.7 million to build a pier to accommodate large cruise
ships. The cost to buy the land from the Canadian corporation was not
addressed in the report.
But Bermello
noted that, with the right mix of uses, including a possible
resurrection of ferry service and other commercial development on the
site not connected to the terminal operation, the property could
“generate sufficient revenues to pay for all operating expenses and debt
associated with future capital improvements.”
Bar
Harbor is a popular port call for many ships. This year, the town will
host 122 ship visits and more than 215,000 cruise visitors, said Amy
Powers, director of CruiseMaineUSA, a destination marketing
organization.
But larger vessels --
anything accommodating more than about 150 passengers -- must anchor in
the harbor and tender passengers to shore.
The smaller ships can use a municipal dock in the harbor, Powers said.
There
is no set timetable that will determine when the Bar Harbor Town
Council might act on Bermello's report, but as the study noted, the
cruise industry accounted for more than $36 million in direct spending
in Maine in 2010, an increase of 5% over 2009.
If
large ships can dock at the harbor and not have to rely on tenders, Bar
Harbor could attract more cruise business, Bermello indicated.