By Dave Berman, From FLORIDA TODAY

Consultant Luis Ajamil gave Port Canaveral officials lots of good news on the outlook for cruise operations at Brevard County’s seaport.

Cruise passenger counts are likely to more than double there in the next 30 years, making Port Canaveral the clear world leader, ahead of its in-state rivals, Port of Miami and Port Everglades.

“That’s a lot of economic impact for the community,” Ajamil said.

The impact includes not only increased revenue from the cruise lines for Port Canaveral, but also more jobs on the Space Coast and more spending by cruise passengers at local hotels, restaurants, retail shops and attractions.

But there was a piece of bad news — or at least a challenge — in Ajamil’s hourlong briefing to port commissioners. To handle the increased load, Port Canaveral would have to find a way to add four new cruise terminals over the next 25 years at a cost that could approach a half-billion dollars. One of those four terminals opens next month.

And the port would have to figure out how to fit those terminals into what already is a jigsaw puzzle of cruise, cargo, restaurant, retail, recreation, marina, commercial fishing and industrial operations.

“This will probably be the largest financial decision we’ll ever make at this port,” Canaveral Port Authority chairman Tom Weinberg said. “This is the future.”

Port Canaveral CEO John Walsh said that even though Port Canaveral is working to boost its cargo operations, cruise is “still 80 percent of our business” and is a key focus for growth.

Port commissioners will hold a workshop Dec. 11 to discuss how to proceed with the port’s future cruise operations and need for new terminals.

A major component of the process will be how to fit the larger cruise ships into the terminals. Already, Port Canaveral’s Cruise Terminal 5 is too small to handle the larger cruise ships coming into service, such as Royal Caribbean’s new 4,905-passenger Quantum of the Seas, which will visit Port Canaveral for the first time Wednesday.

Ajamil projects that the average new cruise ship going online in 2018 will have room for more than 4,500 passengers — triple what it was in 1999.

At Port Canaveral, the average ship size has increased from less than 2,300 passengers in 2003 to 3,100 passengers in 2013.

Port Canaveral’s new $110 million Cruise Terminal 1 and adjacent parking garage will go into service Dec. 27 and be used primarily by Royal Caribbean.

But Ajamil projects that the port will need another terminal by 2016, followed by additional terminals by 2021 and 2039.

“We don’t think that you should stop” building terminals after that, Ajamil told port commissioners, “because the world doesn’t stop at 2043.”

He said two more terminals may be needed beyond the four projected to that point.

To handle the increased demand, Ajamil recommended that the port:

• Build new terminal berths that are 1,400 feet long, so they can serve ships 1,200 feet long that can carry 7,000 passengers.

• Find ways to retrofit its Cruise Terminals 6, 8 and 10 to reach these capacities.

• Keep its cruise and cargo container operations as separate as possible by locating new cruise terminals on the south side of the port, in the areas near existing terminals and The Cove restaurant and retail district.

“You can’t mix these two things — cruise and containers,” Ajamil said, citing issues such as “problematic” security, “isolated” cruise passengers, and the difficulty of using the same berth area for cruise and cargo.

As part of his briefing, Ajamil ranked various potential cruise terminal sites, based on factors such as access, cost, land availability, environmental impact and impact on adjacent tenants.

• Consider having a “remote transportation center” where cruise passengers can park their vehicles, then be transported by bus or rail shuttle to their cruise terminals, rather than building parking facilities for each terminal.

• Build five-story parking garages, rather than two-story garages, because land will be at a premium.

• Coordinate its plans for new cruise terminals with plans to redevelop and expand its Cove area.

• Consider designing future cruise terminals in a way they can handle two or more ships at a time.

Ajamil said the port’s cruise passenger growth will occur because of a combination of more and bigger ships based here as well as more making port-of-call stops here.

Competition is fierce among cruise ports for businesses, and Walsh said he doesn’t want to be in a position to have to turn down a cruise line wanting to base a ship at Port Canaveral or make a port-of-call stop at Port Canaveral because of a lack of facilities.

Things were tight Nov. 15, a Saturday, when four ships were at Port Canaveral — one in each of its major cruise terminals.

Walsh said traffic was congested that day on the road leading to the cruise terminals, something the port will have to work on improving, especially as ships get larger.

He said there will be five cruise ships at Port Canaveral today, and a six-ship day in February.

Ajamil said cruise passenger counts at Port of Miami and Port Everglades also are expected to grow in the future. But those ports have more challenges in finding ways to expand their cruise operations that Port Canaveral does.

Port Canaveral already makes far more efficient use of its terminals than other major U.S. cruise ports, based on annual passenger volume per cruise terminal, Ajamil said.

“Clearly, you’re coming out on top,” Ajamil told Port Canaveral commissioners.

Weinberg said Ajamil’s presentation was “probably more good news than we can stand.”

He said port officials will work to figure out the best way to locate the new terminals on port property and the best way to pay for them.

“If you’re a banker or a contractor, start your engines,” Weinberg said.

IMAGE: Seconday Explorer of the Seas .jpg (Photo: MALCOLM DENEMARK/FLORIDA TODAY)

For more on this story go to: http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2014/11/22/port-canaveral-needs-cruise-terminals-handle-growth/19427835/