A proposed pilot project that would offer ferry service from downtown St. Petersburg to downtown Tampa just got a bit more real on Tuesday after the mayors of those respective cities met for an hour to discuss the possibility.
St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman made the commute to meet with Mayor Bob Buckhorn at Tampa City Hall, a day before he’s scheduled to provide details to the Hillsborough County Commission. The project has been spearheaded by Kriseman since this fall, and he’s already received buy-in from his own City Council. A proposed ferry service would run from October to the next April, with projections of as many as 10,000 trips during that period.
However, until today, Kriseman hadn’t briefed Buckhorn on the service, which would literally require buy-in from the city governments of Tampa, Pinellas and Hillsborough County to the tune of $350,000 each to fund the project (St. Pete already has committed that amount).
“I’m willing to entertain it. These were good preliminary discussions that we had today,” Buckhorn told reporters after the two met in his office. “I’ve said from Day One that I needed to see the business model and I’ve gotten a closer look at that, to see how this would work.”
There is a lot that’s still unknown at this time about how it would all work out. Kriseman’s first goal is to get the $1.4 million from the four local governments before sitting down again with HMS Ferries, the only company to meet a Dec. 18 Request for Proposal (RFQ) deadline set by his office.
HMS Ferries is the same company that has been working with Hillsborough County the past couple of years to establish a high-speed ferry service between the southern part of the county and MacDill Air Force Base. Part of the promise of that project has been ultimately to have the ferry run from Tampa to St. Petersburg.
There had been controversy from competitors of HMS about an unfair process, but Kriseman dismissed those concerns. “(They) certainly had an opportunity to put their qualifications together, and submit them,” he said. “They didn’t do it. They’ve asked for more time to give them an opportunity to do it after the fact creates an unfair advantage I believe for them.”
Another common denominator along with HMS is Ed Turanchik, who brought the MacDill ferry proposal to the county several years ago. He’s also involved in this project, but this time under the aegis of Strategic Property Partners LLC, the real estate development company owned by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik.
The $1.4 million that Kriseman is hoping to get commitments for would be for one boat to ferry passengers across Tampa Bay. To acquire funding for a second boat to would allow more frequent trips, Kriseman says the project would need funding from the state Legislature, which convenes its 2016 regular session in a week. That adds urgency to the project, and the St. Pete mayor said he hoped to get those financial commitments from the local governments in a matter of weeks.
Buckhorn said the St. Pete city government will lead the negotiations with HMS. Kriseman stressed that if the numbers don’t work when and if the two partners sit down to negotiate, he’ll walk away from the table. “If we can’t reach a deal, if the numbers don’t look like they make sense, we’re not comfortable, we just don’t go forward.”
Buckhorn said that the ferry could spur economic activity in Tampa. With the proposal for the ferries to dock at slips connected to the Tampa Convention Center, the nearby Sail Pavilion restaurant could make out financially. He also said that there could be increased revenue from people parking their cars in Tampa-owned parking garages.
And undoubtedly there would be a request of Vinik, who has spoken enthusiastically about the possibility of such a service. “We intend to on pursuing any and all other revenue sources that are available to offset our costs,” said Kriseman.
Kriseman said the process must be completed before summer to get one boat reserved for use in October. Funding for a second boat (estimated at $900,000) would need to be locked in much earlier.
