Huna Totem group and a global port operator bid to run Haines' cruise dock

The Haines Borough Assembly will decide Tuesday whether to spend until January weighing two bids to lease and run the Port Chilkoot cruise dock.

One bid comes from a company formed by Huna Totem Corp., the Hoonah village corporation that owns Icy Strait Point, with Survey Point Holdings and Viking. The other comes from Global Ports Holding, which says it runs 35 cruise ports around the world.

The borough owns the dock, which brought in about $712,000 last fiscal year, and says it intends to keep it. It hasn't decided whether to lease it at all and could keep running it itself.

The Huna Totem group wants a 35-year lease and would pay the borough for each cruise passenger. It plans a floating dock and a bigger tender pier for the 2028 season, and it forecasts that the number of passengers at the dock will more than double over the next decade.

Global Ports wants a 15- or 20-year lease with a set yearly payment. It would build a new floating tender dock but wants the borough to pay for a covered passenger shelter and other dock work. Its bid would allow up to 175,000 passengers a year at first, rising in steps to 275,000. It would also give $100,000 each to the Chilkat Valley Community Foundation and Haines High School if a deal is signed.

The Haines Tourism Advisory Board recommended a formal review. Under the proposed schedule, borough staff would compare the bids side by side Oct. 29, and a Dec. 1 community forum would be the first session set aside for residents and local tour operators to weigh in on the dock. After setting a negotiating framework in January, the Assembly could negotiate with one or both companies or reject both, according to the packet.