THE redevelopment of the Hamilton and St. George’s waterfronts could get underway within the next two years.Pending Cabinet approval, the Ministries of Tourism and Transport are set to embark on a feasibility study within the next six months, looking at removing the container dock in Hamilton and proceeding with the Corporation of Hamilton’s multi-million dollar Waterfront Development plan.

That’s according to Transport Ministry Consultant Larry Jacobs, who this week said discussions were already underway between the Ministry of Transport and the Corporation of Hamilton to redevelop the Hamilton Ferry Terminal.

Mr. Jacobs added that the Ministry was also looking at the feasibility of building a dock at Murray’s Anchorage to cater to post-Panamax, or mega-cruise ships in two years’ time - something which has the full backing of the Corporation of St. George’s.

Why the accelerated agenda?

Because as of 2009 cruise ships will no longer call in Hamilton and St. George’s as the majority of small, Panamax cruise ships are being sold off to European markets and being replaced with post-Panamax ships like the Freedom of Seas — each capable of carrying more than 4,000 passengers and crew.

‘Panamax’ is a classification in shipping meaning that the vessel is within the dimensions capable of fitting through the locks of the Panama Canal. ‘Post-Panamax’ is the designation for over-sized ships which cannot presently navigate the Canal.

As for next year’s tourism season, so far only 11 casual callers have signed up to drop anchor in these two ports, many for the last time.

In the meantime construction on the new pier in Dockyard, which will cater to two post-Panamax ships, is earmarked for completion in 2009.

However, Government’s decision to only cater to cruise ships in Dockyard has been met with scepticism from the business community across the island. They claim that the loss of cruise ships in Hamilton and St. George’s will cripple the already struggling retail industry.

About 60 members of the Chamber of Commerce - from Hamilton, St. George’s and Dockyard - met with Transport Ministry Consultant Larry Jacobs earlier this week to air their concerns.

One solution seems to be increasing the amount of public transport - ferries, buses, minivans and taxis - and in anticipation of the reduction of ships in the two ports, the Ministry has continued to expand the ferry system.

“Currently we have six non-stop trips from Dockyard to St. George’s return and one non-stop commuter trip in the morning from St. George’s to Hamilton, and one in the evening peak back to St. George’s that is also non-stop,” he explained.

“We also have 25 trips between Hamilton to Dockyard and also use the 650 passenger tender Bermudian when large cruise ships are in port. In September, we will be receiving another 350 passenger high-speed catamaran. This new boat will be used in 2008 and beyond to provide even more high-speed service between Hamilton-Dockyard and St. George’s. We are confident that when the new cruise pier opens in 2009 that we will have enough ferry lift to meet the demands.”Buses are also expected to operate on major routes every 15 minutes throughout the day, while the Ministry has licensed another mini-bus company to provide service, primarily in the West End.

“When cruise ships are located in Hamilton or St. George’s many visitors come off the ship, go back onboard for lunch or dinner and may stay on the ship after that,” he said. “But when the ship is not in close proximity, cruise visitors tend to stay longer at the place they are visiting, including eating lunch in local restaurants.”

Using an example, Mr. Jacobs referred to the Explorer of the Seas which arrived at Dockyard on Tuesday and departed on Wednesday evening. He said the ferry that left Dockyard at 10 a.m. and arrived in St. George’s at 10.50 a.m. was almost full.

“After exploring the Town, many of these visitors ate lunch at area restaurants, something they would not necessarily do if the ship they were on was docked in St. George’s. After lunch they either return to Dockyard on the ferry, or many of them see other attractions in the East End, such as Crystal Caves. So not having the ship docked at your front door has some advantages. The challenge is ensuring that we have sufficient transport lift to meet the demands.”

Regarding tours to the East End and such other attractions as the Bermuda Underwater<\p>Exploration<\p>Institute and the Aquarium, Mr. Jacobs said the Ministry was co-ordinating with the tour agents to use the ferry to transport those cruise guests on tours to Hamilton, where they catch the bus and taxi tours, while the ferries will also be used for tours originating from St. George’s to East End attractions.

As for the redevelopment of the Hamilton and St. George’s waterfronts, Mr. Jacobs pointed out that the physical presence of such a large ship(s) in Hamilton, or St. George’s would make it difficult to improve the respective waterfronts.

“It is my understanding the Corporation of Hamilton would like to revisit their waterfront development plans and having cruise ships lined up along Front Street would make it difficult to accomplish this. So the withdrawal of the smaller and older cruise ships by the cruise lines provides us the opportunity to move in the direction of providing first-class waterfronts at all three ports,” he added.

“Which brings me to the Hamilton Ferry Terminal. We have started discussions with the Corporation of Hamilton to enlarge the Hamilton Ferry Terminal to load more boats simultaneously. Also, we will be improving the land-side infrastructure to provide better interface between buses, ferries and taxis,” he said.

“With two cruise piers at Dockyard we need more space at the Hamilton Ferry Terminal to handle the demands. Incidentally, expansion of the Hamilton Ferry Terminal can be more easily accomplished if we don’t have ships docked Number One Terminal.”

Mr. Jacobs added that these improvements would hopefully be completed for the 2009 cruise ship season.

Meanwhile Co-chairman of the Chamber of Commerce’s Retail Division, Somers Cooper warns that 2008 will be a rough year for retail business, not only in Hamilton, but across the island.

He said St. George’s would be better off than Hamilton, at least next year, as at least two cruise ships are ensured in this port for the 2008 season, thanks to the Norwegian Cruise Lines, while Hamilton only has 11 “casual callers” for next year.

Mr. Cooper said the Dockyard ships have proven to be ineffectual in the retail world as they only docked in Bermuda for a day and many of these tourists were more interested in seeing the island, or just going to the beach, than shopping.

But, he said, with the Ministry rearranging the schedule in Dockyard, many of the post-Panamax ships are now scheduled to stay in Bermuda overnight.

He warned that businesses will also have to change their “focus” from cruise ship passenger to hotel guest.

“Businesses will have to look at that. There won’t be any cruise ships here (and) it’s speculation as to how many visitors we’ll get from Dockyard on a daily basis. So we will have to modify our buying merchandise and selection and ways we present it,” he said.

Mr. Cooper said over the years the look of Front Street has changed to include high-end boutiques, while many shops are renovating to improve their appearance, including the major revamp of his own store, A.S Cooper & Sons.

“I’m working with the Finance Minister to reduce duty requirements on renovating stores. Right now if a restaurant wants to renovate, they have duty concessions they can capitalise on to make it a more efficient renovations.

:As you know, construction and renovation is very expensive in Bermuda. If we are successful with that, it will help raise the level of our presentation and what we have to offer our visitors,” he said.

However all this construction has had a negative effect on the way tourists see Hamilton: “There is a lot of construction going on .... now we have the Bank of Bermuda construction going on and in a few weeks the old Harbour Front restaurant will be going down, so there will be major construction happening on Front Street, which in the long run will benefit Front Street, but right now it has a feeling of disjointedness. Hamilton lacks that warm and fuzzy colonial feel it had before,” he said.

“The general feeling is that Hamilton is not a welcoming place for tourists at this point in time and international business has taken over to the extent that some people think it’s just high rises and a few stores scattered around and we need to change that,” he said, adding that redeveloping the Hamilton waterfront would help lure tourists back to Hamilton.