New Plan For Dartmouth Waterfront Includes Cruise Ship Berths
DARTMOUTH – Early plans for a significant redevelopment of Alderney Landing and the Dartmouth waterfront include cruise ship berths and a pedestrian trail connecting King’s Wharf and Ferry Terminal Park.
At the January 19 Community Planning and Economic Development Standing Committee, a group of stakeholders laid out their vision for a revamped Alderney Landing and waterfront.
The group included several representatives from Alderney Landing, as well as stakeholders from the Port of Halifax and downtown Dartmouth. They were at the meeting to explain their vision and ask the municipality to be part of the planning and development process.
A notable aspect of the plan they laid out was space for cruise ship berths on the Dartmouth side of Halifax Harbour.
Docking cruises on the Dark Side is an idea the Port of Halifax has been seriously considering for some time. Huddle first reported on the plan in November. At the time, Port spokesperson Lane Farguson told us that cruise ship berths in Dartmouth could be “transformative.”
“You’d be able to create some really interesting waterfront activity that’s similar to what’s happened on the Halifax side,” he said.
At Thursday’s meeting, Captain Allan Gray, the Port’s president and CEO, told the committee the Port will reach its capacity limits in 2024. Even this year, he predicts 200 cruise ship calls and about 350,000 passengers.
“[But] we ultimately believe we’ll get to one million passengers a year through Halifax,” Gray explained. He said new facilities in Dartmouth could eventually take on as much as 50 of that passenger volume.
Gray said demand from tourism industries is intensifying and operators are looking for more and smoother experiences in the HRM.
Right now, for example, operators can only run one trip a day to Peggy’s Cove from Halifax. With cruise passengers disembarking in Dartmouth, they could run two.
Gray said for the port to move forward it needs “a firm location” for cruise berths and, right now, it doesn’t own any land on the Dartmouth side of the harbour. If it does secure some, it would take 3-4 years to build the infrastructure it needs.
Planning for 15,000-person events
Beyond the possibility of cruise ships in Dartmouth, the team at Alderney landing said they want to plan the facility’s expansion alongside major stakeholders.
Alderney Landing’s Gord Gamble explained that the facility is now 25 years old and at its maximum capacity. He said all the commercial operators inside the facility want more space, and there’s a waitlist of commercial enterprises looking to move in.
However, the big problem for the facility is that it can’t live up to its full potential as an event venue.
As Gamble explained, limited egress points at Alderley landing force them to keep events at no more than 8,500 people. However, another egress point would allow them to host as many as 15,000.
Gamble and the rest of the Alderney Landing team hope that, through corporation with the municipality and other partners, there will eventually be some sort of physical connection between Ferry Terminal Park and the nearby King’s Wharf development.
That kind of cooperation is what the Alderney team hopes to bring to the overall development of the Dartmouth waterfront.
“It’s time for Dartmouth to have a connected, pedestrian-driven waterfront. And we’re here to lead that process,” Gamble said.
Trevor Nichols is Huddle’s editor, based in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].