Port Canaveral scraps new cruise terminal plans amid state pressure
BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. - Port Canaveral leaders acquiesced Wednesday to the state's demands and reversed plans for a new cruise terminal that could have impeded the space industry's future needs.
The Port Canaveral Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 to end plans set in May to redesign what is known as North Cargo Berth 8 for cruise operations and use the 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 cruise-terminal plan changes that could affect the space industry.
Kelly and Perdue, in a letter, said that unless the port returns to earlier plans for the berth, the Department of Transportation will shift investments to other seaports and spaceports, and the Department of Commerce will 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."
Cruise ships head for sea from Port Canaveral, Florida. (BRUCE WEAVER/AFP via Getty Images)
The letter also said the Department of Commerce would "stringently" review whether the port complied with the 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 also warned that the Departments of Commerce and 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 Chair 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."
"It’s tough to keep everybody happy all the time, but we do our best," explained Canaveral Port Authority CEO John Murray. "Miami’s full. Everglades is full. If we’re full, we don’t want large brand-new assets moving over to Texas, California, or New York. We want to keep that business here in Florida."
Murray added that the Port Authority would do everything it could to protect cruise partners and find solutions in the future.
"[The] cruise [industry] brings a lot of economic value to the port – it’s about 1% of our total revenue," he said. "Efficient use of port property is becoming more and more important to a lot of different people."
Space Florida, the state’s aerospace agency, released a study in May 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 globally in 2023, behind only PortMiami, which had 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 recorded 72 orbital rocket launches in 2023, up from 57 in 2022 to 31 in 2021.