A foot passenger ferry service between Vancouver and Victoria could soon be operating out of the Inner Harbour’s historic CPR Steamship Terminal, along with a deep ocean education centre affiliated with the University of Victoria. Click here to read the complete article.
The Greater Victoria Harbour Authority said Wednesday that it is negotiating long-term leases with two potential tenants: Riverside Marine, a major Australian marine operator and Ocean Networks Canada, which operates the NEPTUNE and VENUS cabled ocean observatories. Not only would the two potential tenants make the money-losing harbour authority viable, said CEO Ian Robertson, but help return the building to its maritime origins dating to 1905. He hopes tenancy agreements will be worked out by mid-November.
Riverside Marine approached the harbor authority in June and “immediately fell in love with the building” which has a dock on its north side, Robertson said.
The company’s catamaran is expected to carry about 300 people, on an “experiential” downtown to downtown trip of about three hours following the B.C. Ferries Active Pass route, with one-way cost of $80. “It will be an experience more than a high speed journey,” said Riverside Marine CEO Hume Kenneth Campbell. “So we also want to not just go through the area. We want to interpret what we’re seeing.”
Victoria Chamber of Commerce chairman Frank Bourree called both proposals “fantastic” in potential to add more cachet to the city. “Both of these new initiatives are real attractions for Victoria — what tourists are looking for is an experience . . . so it’s really good news.”
Tourism Victoria CEO Paul Nursey agreed, saying he worked with the two groups in developing their proposals, which they hope will dovetail with tourism needs. “We need more things for people to see and do and more ways to get here,” he said.
A previous passenger ferry between the two downtowns was deep-sixed after 19 months in 1993, when the Royal Sealink Express lost millions of dollars due to low ridership for four round trips per day and pervasive seasickness among passengers.
The Victoria Clipper has taken catamaran passengers between Victoria and Seattle since 1986, frequently twice daily, but founder Meredith Tall recalls she was warned at the outset that that there was no need for year-round service between the two cities. Tall, along with Coho ferry president Ryan Burles, greeted news of increased ferry service as positive. “If they feel they can find that niche and make it go,then good for them,” Burles said.
Kate Moran, president of Ocean Networks Canada said she is “thrilled” the organization was selected for further negotiations. Its base will continue to be at UVic but she’s eager to see its work explained at an outreach site to “really enhance that experience of seeing the deep ocean for the first time — up to three kilometres down.” The Steamship satellite would be a good fit with Victoria’s growing reputation as “an ocean science city,” Moran said.New tenants are a must-do for the financially faltering harbour authority. In 2012, the non-profit assumed the head lease of the Steamship Terminal from the province and has invested $2.7 million in renovations. Its pays the province, which owns the building, about $400,000 annually but has fallen behind due to the vacancies. “That’s why it’s important to stop the bleeding and find some suitable tenants that could sustain us financially,” Robertson said.
Riverside Marine would occupy the 2,400 square foot fourth level for administration and part of the causeway level and the adjacent water lot. Ocean Network Canada would occupy the remainder of level one, which is 6,000 square feet.Current tenants include Robert Bateman Centre, Steamship Grill and Bar, and Starbucks. The harbour authority held the space open for the Maritime Museum of B.C. for about nine months, but the museum could not obtain provincial funds to make the move after it lost its home at Bastion Square.
Museum chairman Clay Evans said he wishes the new prospective tenants well. “Although it isn’t the outcome that we had hoped for in this public building, we do hope we can work together with both Riverside Marine and ONC on any joint initiatives as they develop,” he said. “In fact, Riverside had already touched base with us in this regard prior to this announcement.”
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