New development aims to make Detroit a popular port of call

DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

A $21.5-million port development along Detroit's riverfront will debut next month with the tall order of changing how the waterway is used.

The port -- located between Hart Plaza and the Renaissance Center -- is the latest piece of the ongoing revitalization of Detroit's riverfront and is the key to hopes of luring Great Lakes cruise ships, starting a Detroit-Windsor ferry and creating a new era of waterfront tourism.

The project mirrors efforts of other Great Lakes port cities looking to maximize their waterfronts, including Cleveland, but critics doubt that Detroit has the demand to match the cost.

"On net balance, these kinds of investments are little more than expensive ribbon-cutting ceremonies," said Michael LaFaive with the free-market Mackinac Center think tank in Midland. "If this was a valuable addition to Detroit's waterfront, entrepreneurs would fall over themselves to fund it."

The Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority plans a ribbon-cutting next month; the Grande Mariner cruise ship is expected to be among the first to use the new dock in July.

A bustling riverfront is "not as far-fetched as people might imagine," countered John Kerr, the port authority's economic development director. "Port communities across Michigan are looking at what we're doing."
Several cruise ships each year have sailed the Great Lakes since 1997. They stop in cities such as Toronto and Chicago but have skipped Detroit.
"We are excited about it." Conlin said of the port. "Definitely it is a 'build-it-and-they-will-come' thing."


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