Port Backtracks After State Criticism

By The News Service of Florida

TALLAHASSEE — Port Canaveral leaders acquiesced Wednesday to demands by the state and reversed plans for a new cruise terminal that could have been an impediment to future needs of the space industry.

The Port Canaveral Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 to end plans set in May for redesignating what is known as North Cargo Berth 8 for cruise operations and to use adjacent property for parking garages. Port Canaveral is one of the world’s busiest cruise ports.

“We are confident that solutions can be reached to fulfill our commitment to the space industry as well as to our commitment to the cruise and economic businesses,” Commissioner Jerry Allender said.

On Aug. 2, Florida Department of Commerce Secretary J. Alex Kelly and Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue expressed dismay about changes in cruise-terminal plans that could affect the space industry.

Kelly and Perdue in a letter said that unless the port returned to earlier plans for the berth, the Department of Transportation would shift investments to other seaports and spaceports and the Department of Commerce would halt funding for Port Canaveral projects.

“Florida’s cruise tourism and commercial space launch sectors are both vitally important,” Kelly and Perdue wrote. “Port Canaveral bears the responsibility of housing and supporting both. We will help you do both. But in this case, the port has announced its intention to support one sector to the direct detriment of the other. That decision must, therefore, be reversed.”

The letter also said the Department of Commerce would “stringently” review whether the port complied with terms of an $8.245 million grant received in 2018 through the state’s Job Growth Grant Fund. That grant made up the bulk of funding for a $12 million road project and was provided, in part, to support the aerospace industry, the letter said.

Also, the letter warned that the Department of Commerce and the Department of Transportation would not certify three recent applications to the Florida Seaport Tourism Economic Development Council for projects related to the cruise industry.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Port Canaveral Chairman Micah Loyd defended port staff members as balancing demands among the space, cargo, commercial fishing and cruise industries, with no interest “more important than the other.”

But Commissioner Fritz VanVolkenburgh said the authority needs to be flexible with increased demands that limit available port space.

“There will be tensions that will rise from that, because the demand is so high. And those tensions will continue,” VanVolkenburgh said. “I think, going forward, we just have to recognize that.”

Space Florida, the state’s aerospace agency, in May released a study that found the space industry would need to nearly double by 2033 the current footprint of about 2,800 linear feet of wharf space around Port Canaveral.

Port Canaveral handled 6.92 million cruise passengers in 2023, globally behind only PortMiami with 7.3 million cruise passengers.

After SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday, Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral have had 59 launches in 2024. Florida had a record 72 orbital rocket launches in 2023, up from 57 in 2022 and 31 in 2021.