Juneau's Áak'w Landing project shrinks to a third its size

A big cruise-tourism development on Juneau's waterfront is getting a lot smaller. Huna Totem Corporation has shrunk the planned building at Áak'w Landing to about a third of its original size after costs ballooned from $150 million in 2023 to more than $250 million.

The revised plan calls for a single-story, 18,000-square-foot building, down from a multi-story structure of up to 50,000 square feet. Three things drove the cost up: a legal appeal that delayed the project for a year, new tariffs on steel and other materials, and a geotechnical analysis that made the original design too expensive to build.

The smaller footprint keeps everything that was promised, though — the welcome center, retail, restaurant, cultural center, public park, seawalk extension, and the public-benefit conditions like a five-ship cruise limit and a shore-power requirement for large ships. Huna Totem, the Hoonah-based Alaska Native corporation that also runs Icy Strait Point, notes the project is privately funded on private land and needs no tax breaks or variances.

The redesign still needs sign-off. It requires a modification to the project's 2023 permit, which goes first to Juneau's Planning Commission — where the public will actually get its say — before anything returns to the Assembly.