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Downtown Detroit dock to welcome cruise ships

City hopes streams of tourists will flow into new terminal

By Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News

Detroit is banking on a $11.25 million passenger dock and terminal on the Detroit River downtown to return the city to its historic status as a passenger ship destination.

And the $37-million-a-year Great Lakes cruise ship industry is happy to have a new port of call.

?When a city like Detroit announces we are open for business, we have a terminal, you open yourself to revenue streams from tourism as well as the blunt edge of marine handling. People who sell vegetables and fuel oil and handle the garbage, all will benefit economically from ships visiting Detroit,? said Stephen Burnett, executive director of the Great Lakes Cruise Coalition in Toronto.

The groundbreaking Monday for a new Detroit Wayne County Port Authority terminal and public dock in the shadow of the Renaissance Center also is another step toward turning the city back toward the river that was the reason for its founding.

It joins plans for a riverwalk from Belle Isle Bridge to the Ambassador Bridge and the dedication in May of the 31-acre Tri-Centennial State Park along the same upriver stretch.

The goal is to complete the terminal project behind Ford Auditorium by July 2005, in time to make Major League Baseball?s All-Star Game at Comerica Park a cruise ship destination.

?We should think of this as a freeway, but we don?t yet have an exit or an on-ramp,? said Curtis Hertel, executive director of the port authority and a former state legislator.

Funding for the project comes from a $6 million federal transportation grant, $1.5 million from the Michigan Department of Transportation, $3 million in state waterfront redevelopment money and $750,000 in federal funding through the city.

Land for the terminal was purchased for $3 million Friday from General Motors, which also has plans for residential and open space development of other riverfront property near its Renaissance Center headquarters.

?This is some of the best real estate in the state of Michigan, and most of what we have along the river is parking lots,? said Matt Cullen, GM?s general manager of economic development and enterprise services. ?Not that I have anything against cars, but they don?t need a view of the river.?

Seven cruise ships are scheduled to ply the Great Lakes this summer. None is as big as the 2,000-passenger mega-ships that sail the Caribbean, but some are just as plush, according to Burnett. Most are 100- to 200-passenger vessels complete with dining rooms and swimming pools. The largest is the MV Columbus, which carries 425 passengers.

The once-booming Great Lakes passenger trade revived in the past decade, with the MV Columbus visiting Detroit in 1998. Without a terminal, cruises have since docked in Windsor.

Lake cruising took a hit, along with the rest of the tourism industry, after the terrorist attacks of September 11. A company with two new ships being built for the Great Lakes went bankrupt last year. But 11,000 berths available for cruises this summer marks a 20 percent increase over last season.

?Our first study (completed in March) of the economic impact of the Great Lakes cruise industry surprised us a bit,? Burnett said. ?It?s a healthy niche market, and the importance of what Detroit is doing cannot be underestimated. It?s like when the Alaskan cruise trade was starting up. It?s a small terminal, but a bold move that says to the cruise industry that Detroit is open for business. The industry is thrilled with the vision.?

With concerns about terrorism, Burnett said travelers are looking for options closer to home, and the Great Lakes may appear safer than other cruising options.

Linda Sherman, owner of Around the World Travel of Farmington Hills, said she loves the idea but remains skeptical.

?The last one I tried to book, the company went out of business,? Sherman said. ?I think it?s a pretty good idea, though. We certainly have the venue for it; going to Up North or to Wisconsin or Chicago or even visiting the beautiful towns on the west side of our state, there are great places to see. Doing that on a ship would be a lot of fun and a great family thing.?

And for tourists coming ashore in Detroit: ?I don?t know that you want to be discovering some parts of Detroit, but if you had tickets to the Fox Theatre or a ball game and dinner in Greektown or plans to go to a casino, yeah, that would be great.?

Beth Conway, owner of Beth?s Vacation and Event Planning in Livonia, said she has booked Great Lakes cruises for her customers out of Port Huron and believes a Detroit departure would be even more popular.

?Detroit?s waterfront is going to be beautiful in the way New Orleans is an interesting departure point for the big cruise ships.

You can reach Doug Guthrie at (313) 222-2359 or dguthrie@detnews.com."

I'm not sure what the benefit of a call in Detroit over Windsor is? Someone must be able to vouch for it.

Pam

[ 06-26-2004: Message edited by: PamM ]

The city is Haarlem, Bed-sty, North Philly, Tenderloin, Watts and East LA without the corrsponding UpperWest Side, Rittenhouse Sqaure, Nob Hill, and Beverly Hills.

In recent years Detroit has had a small resurgence.

Sometimes the US puzzles me...

[ 06-29-2004: Message edited by: Great Lakes ]

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Originally posted by lasuvidaboy:
Regarding Johans comment about Detroit. Automobile factories and their related suppliers dominated the Detroit area for years. Cars and truck production was/is also spread out throughout the United States. Detroit fell victim to a change in consumer demand and the poor economy we had in several areas of the country in the 1970s. Europe had many problems as well, however in the States we had quite a bit more vacant land to move to another location and build completely new manufacturing sites. With these new sites came new communities. Many cities in the former 'Rust belt' that were abandoned in the 1970s and 80s have been re-populated by people that wanted to return to the onetime lovely old neighborhoods. Many of these inner city areas have been restored and Detroit is waiting for it's turn to be 're-discovered'.

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