Local dignitaries gathered on a square of landfill behind the Lake Express Ferry terminal at Port Milwaukee on a cool and breezy Thursday morning to finally break ground on the long-discussed South Shore Cruise Dock.
The $17 million deep water dock for mooring visiting cruise ships will be located at 2320 S. Lincoln Memorial Dr. and is expected to be completed in June, not long after the opening of the 2026 cruise season.
The dock – designed for Seawaymax vessels (or ships of the maximum size that can navigate through the St. Lawrence Seaway canal locks) – won’t be the only dock in the city for hosting cruise ships. Another is at Pier Wisconsin/Discovery World.
According to Port Milwaukee Director Jackie Q. Carter, there were 22 cruise ship visits carrying 13,500 passengers this season, all of which were turnaround visits, meaning that previous passengers disembarked and were replaced with new arrivals.
Carter said that the schedule for next year more than doubles that number with 55 visits planned, in part because the city will now see transit visits, too, in which a ship docks, passengers disembark to visit the city and then board again for departure.
Based on those numbers, Visit Milwaukee President/CEO Peggy Williams-Smith estimated that this economic impact from cruise ship visits, which was about $2.5 million this season, will jump to $3.5 million next year.
"These dollars support our hotels, our restaurants, our small businesses, our attractions, and they the they also support the Milwaukeeans who work in all of those different jobs," Williams-Smith said.
A study commissioned by Port Milwaukee estimated that cruise ship passengers created $7.2 million in economic impact in the Milwaukee area between 2022 and 2024.
The funding package for the project includes a $3.5 million State of Wisconsin Capital Tourism Grant and $500,000 Harbor Assistance Grant from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, as well as $5 million from the City of Milwaukee, and cash from the Port’s reserves.
Since it announced that it would use Milwaukee as its Great Lakes turnaround port, Viking Cruises vessels have been mooring at the City Heavy Lift Dock on Jones Island, alongside the MMSD’s water reclamation facility and odiferous Milorganite plant.
The striking (if, when lake levels are high, precarious-feeling) transit of Viking’s Octantis and Polaris expedition ships beneath the Hoan Bridge notwithstanding, that's hardly been a welcoming location for visitors to the city.
The new dock will provide a more appropriate embarkation site.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, Carter and Williams-Smith were joined by Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Wisconsin Department of Administration Secretary Kathy Blumenfeld and Milwaukee Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic.
"By strengthening Milwaukee as a premier destination, we expand Wisconsin's reputation and ensure that the economic impact of tourism is felt not just here in the city, but in the region,” said Johnson.
"We're making a port that's stronger. We're making a city that's stronger. And, really, a Wisconsin, that is stronger."
Discussion of the dock began a number of years ago and had a projected completion date in 2023.
To get a sense of where the Great Lakes cruises go when they depart Milwaukee, you can check out this story and this one.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press. A fifth collects Urban Spelunking articles about breweries and maltsters.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has been heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
