This is a developing story.
The announcement of a private cruise ship dock in Douglas was deliberately delayed until after this month’s local election that featured the Ship-Free Saturday ballot initiative that failed by a wide margin, according to Juneau Mayor Beth Weldon and a published report.
The strategy raises questions about how the project — which will see Royal Caribbean Group ships docking on land owned by Goldbelt Inc. far from other shopping and tour offerings in Juneau — will affect the local economic impacts of cruise tourism in Juneau cited by opponents of the ballot measure as a primary reason for their opposition. Goldbelt, in a press release promoting the project, stated it will “remove nearly one-third of bus traffic from Juneau’s most congested roadways.”
Royal Caribbean and Goldbelt announced the private dock project last Wednesday, the day after the results of the Oct. 1 municipal election were certified. The travel industry news website Skift reported last Friday that Royal Caribbean “waited to make the announcement until after city officials certified the election results.”
“We wanted to wait for the official certification of the Juneau ballot results, which took place on the 15th. Once that happened, we moved forward with the announcement,” a Royal Caribbean spokesperson said, according to the Skift article.
Weldon, in an interview Wednesday, said local officials learned about the intentional timing after the announcement was made.
“We had someone from the Royal Caribbean calling us and saying ‘Is election confirmed yet? Is the election confirmed yet?’ And we thought it was because he just wanted this to be done,” she said. However, local officials subsequently learned “they were waiting until after the election” to announce the project.
That explanation is seemingly at odds with the explanation to the Empire last Wednesday by Goldbelt President and CEO McHugh Pierre, who said the timing of the public announcement occurred once the partnership agreement with Royal Caribbean was signed.
“We didn’t want people to think we were making decisions or plans outside of the public’s awareness, and so we wanted to let people know right away and talk about it,” he said at the time.
Pierre is the co-chair of Protect Juneau’s Future, the group behind the heavily funded opposition campaign for Ship-Free Saturday.
Oriana Branon, a Royal Caribbean spokesperson, responded to questions from the Empire about the timing of the announcement with an email that stated “we don’t have anything further to add to your story.” Attempts to reach Pierre by email and phone Tuesday night and Wednesday morning were unsuccessful.
Weldon said her discussions on the matter have been with Royal Caribbean so far and “Goldbelt’s been silent, so we don’t even know what they’re thinking.”
The private port would include a two-ship floating dock and “a recreated 1800s Alaska Native Tlingit village,” according to the official announcement. Goldbelt owns about 1,700 acres between Outer Point and Point Hilda on Douglas Island, and Pierre has said the hope is the site will include features such as employee housing, helipads to launch flightseeing tours from and facilities to support dayboat sightseeing tours.
The announcement prompted angry reactions from City and Borough of Juneau officials who said they were caught by surprise about the proposed cruise port. Royal Caribbean issued a formal apology by email Tuesday for the lack of notice to city officials in an email statement after ill feelings were stirred by a convention speech by Celebrity Cruises President Laura Hodges Bethge that touted the project and said “we’ve just begun conversations with Mayor Weldon, and other local stakeholders and residents, and we deeply value the input.”
Voters rejected the Ship-Free Saturday measure, which would have banned ships with capacity for 250 or more people on Saturdays and the Fourth of July, with 39% in favor and 61% opposed. Opposition by the group Protect Juneau’s Future, which received heavy cruise company and other industry funding, emphasized the cruise industry accounted for $375 million in direct spending in Juneau in 2023, including $30 million in direct spending and a resulting $3.7 million in CBJ tax revenues on Saturdays.
Karla Hart, a lead advocate of the ballot measure, stated in an email Wednesday “it seems Goldbelt and Royal Caribbean are dealing a far greater blow onto the downtown than Ship-Free Saturdays would.”
“If they (Goldbelt and RCCL) thought that their project was a solution to some of the community issues with cruise ship tourism that spawned enough support to place the question on the ballot and worry the broader cruise industry (including shore-side affiliated businesses) to the extent that they spent the massive amount they did influencing the outcome of the vote on Ship-Free Saturdays, then doesn’t it seem they would have announced this earlier and let the community know they were working on this wonderful solution?” she wrote.
The economic impacts of the private Douglas port for downtown Juneau are unknown at this early stage in the process, CBJ Tourism Manager Alexandra Pierce wrote in a text message to the Empire on Wednesday.
“The one thing I will say is that I am hearing a lot of concerns from small downtown businesses that are worried about two ships being diverted to Douglas and two docks sitting empty,” she wrote. “They are worried about their own bottom lines and overall community impact.”
Nimmy Philips, president of the Juneau Downtown Business Association and owner of Spice Juneau Indian Restaurant, stated in a text message that while the private dock proposal needs more study she has concerns.
“My initial reaction is that a private dock in Douglas is going to have a big effect on our small businesses and business community in our downtown Juneau,” she wrote. “We need more information and study on what this means for our downtown businesses.”
Another concern is it “just totally blows the (voluntary agreement) of five ships a day out of the water,” Weldon said. That one-year agreement in place for the first time this year “shall continue unless sooner terminated by either of the parties on written notice,” according to the document.
“How do you do five ships a day with adding two more docks — potentially three with Norwegian (Cruise Line),” Weldon said. “It’s been said already that the city should just close their docks and it’s like ‘What? Why would we close docks that are revenue to the community — straight revenue to the community — that we still owe money on to allow you to build two more docks?’ So the whole thing, like I said, it’s just not planned out well. There was no room for ‘Let’s chat about this, let’s see if we can figure out some way.’ It’s just a slam.”
Royal Caribbean was the last cruise line to sign the five-ship-limit agreement with the city and the only cruise line to threaten a lawsuit if the Ship-Free Saturday initiative was approved, according to Pierce.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
