More cruise ships, please.
The city of Galveston, Texas, is proceeding
with a plan to secure a $160 million bond to build a new cruise terminal.
It hopes to lure a fourth cruise line to
the port. It is already in conversations with MSC to have the MSC Seascape homeport
in Galveston. The ship can accommodate more than 5,600 passengers. It has 20
depths. After processing 1.5 million cruise passengers last year, Galveston is
the fourth-largest port in the country.
In addition, city officials estimate that cruise
passengers accounted for $1.3 billion last year in shoulder spending away from
the ships.
It is confident it can secure the bond.
“Last time we did this we did a $50
million bond offering and we had $250 million in orders,” Rodger Rees,
Galveston Wharves port director and CEO, said. “We had five times as many
buyers as we did papers, meaning the bonds.”
Clearly, it is growing. Later this year,
the port will have a groundbreaking ceremony to convert the Del Monte Fresh
Produce Co.’s building into a 165,000 square-foot cruise terminal.
After listening to presentations, a vote
on the bond will come this week.
Carnival has
already announced a slate of ships scheduled to sail from Galveston in 2025-26.
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