Undercurrents: WICO Readies to Cruise with the Big Boys

A regular Source feature, Undercurrents explores issues, ideas and events as they develop beneath the surface in the Virgin Islands community.

Convinced the cruise industry is a classic case of the “grow or die” principle, the West Indian Company is poised to significantly expand its docks on St. Thomas over the next few years.

Immediate plans call for upgrading and extending the existing pier at Havensight by 150 feet, to the beginning of the channel into Charlotte Amalie Harbor, at a cost of approximately $9 million.

Phase II involves replacing the existing bulkhead at the other end of the pier, a little south of the Yacht Haven Grand property. Its price tag is $6 million. The expansion is slated to start in May and be completed by November, the beginning of the next tourist season. The bulkhead work will follow.

Further off – perhaps in 2016 or 2017 – is a more ambitious proposal: building a second dock adjacent to Yacht Haven, on its north side.

It’s really too early to say how much that one would cost since many factors have yet to be determined, but WICO President and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Boschulte said in an interview last week, “The number we’re using (as a rough estimate) is $50 million.”

WICO will be looking for financing for all three phases.

“It’s not a cost,” Boschulte said. “It’s an investment in our business.” And that business “is a major driver of our economy,” he added.

According to figures from the Business Research & Economic Advisors which were released by WICO, cruise ship spending in the territory in the most recent reporting year was $339.8 million. That figure includes spending by the cruise lines, by passengers and by crew. Direct employment is listed as 3,375 and total employment, both direct and indirect (such as retail workers) was 6,349.

St. Thomas currently has five cruise ship berths – three at Havensight managed by WICO and two managed by the Port Authority at Crown Bay. But two of those are restricted; they can handle only smaller ships.

One of the closest competitors, St. Maarten, has six unrestricted berths already and is in the process of adding two more.

“It’s not a case of ‘If you build it, they will come.’ We have the opposite,” Boschulte said. The ships are coming and the territory has to be ready to receive them.

WICO can currently only berth three ships if one is small enough to essentially hang off the end of the pier. But “ships are getting bigger, longer, heavier and creating friction at the end of the dock,” Boschulte said. The dock is still safe, but as the industry trends more and more to big ships, if WICO doesn’t expand, it could soon find itself able to accommodate only two ships at a time, instead of three.

The Phase I project will not only lengthen the dock; it will strengthen and modernize it. For instance, most of the bollards, or mooring posts, on the pier are designed for 60 tons; some are 100 years old, Boschulte said. They will be replaced with 150-ton bollards.

Phase II will also involve replacing bollards. It will include replacing 621 feet of bulkhead along Berth 1 and another 150 feet along the existing parking/upland area. Unlike the first phase, Phase II may also involve some limited dredging, Boschulte said.

The final phase, building a separate two-berth finger pier at the edge of Yacht Haven, will definitely involve dredging and Boschulte said he is braced for potential opposition on environmental grounds.

He said WICO is running feasibility studies on the most appropriate disposal of the fill. It may be that it can be used for a staging platform to accommodate a taxi stand and other support services, he said, adding whatever the case, WICO will handle it responsibly.

The project will require permits because of the dredging and WICO will need to satisfy the federal Army Corps of Engineers and the V.I. Coastal Zone Management Commission.

Boschulte described a “heavy” cruise ship day for St. Thomas as one when 19,000 or more passengers visit, and he said cruise lines are asking if the island is prepared to handle an additional 10,000.

While WICO’s main focus is pier capacity, he acknowledged that readiness goes far beyond the docks. The island has to have the infrastructure, the attractions and the hospitality to welcome that many visitors.

“Our biggest problem is traffic,” Boschulte said. By far the biggest complaint on exit comment cards is that visitors were stuck in traffic for substantial amounts of their time ashore.

Boschulte said he sees marine transport as essential to expanding the cruise ship industry, not replacing, but supplementing ground transport. Not only will visitors be happier, they’ll have more time to shop. St. Martin recently tried it, he said, and tourist spending increased.

Despite recent bad incidents involving cruise lines, including one in which passengers were without power for several days, Boschulte said the industry is continuing to grow. Moreover St. Thomas is still very much in demand. It’s well-located to lure ships on a typical seven-day cruise between Florida and down the island chain.

In fact, he said, “We’re close to 100 percent booked” for the 2013-14 season and, on some days, have actually had to turn away bookings.

WICO is now aggressively marketing, Boschulte said, and it’s giving preference to “favored customers” – lines that come year-round and that have a history of stopping in the Virgin Islands.