Huna Totem Corporation, Hoonah's Alaska Native village corporation, develops tourism and real estate projects including cruise vessels and the Áak'w Landing.
Photo: Moira Dunworth via Wikimedia Commons · Photo source · CC BY 2.0
hunatotem.com ↗Hoonah, AK 99829, USA
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Juneau planners weigh smaller Áak'w Landing uplands after costs pass $250 million
The Juneau Planning Commission on Tuesday takes up Huna Totem Corp.'s request to shrink the shops, welcome center and bus lot planned beside its downtown cruise dock, after the project's estimated cost jumped from $150 million to more than $250 million.
Huna Totem, the Hoonah-based Alaska Native corporation behind Icy Strait Point, would cut the onshore part of Áak'w Landing from up to 50,000 square feet of retail and related space to about 31,000. Parking and tour bus loading would move from underground to a surface lot, according to the city's staff report, which recommends approval.
In a June memo, Huna Totem's Susan Bell cited a legal appeal that held up the project from August 2023 to June 2024, tariffs on steel and other materials, and geotechnical studies showing the larger buildings would need extensive 100-foot pilings. Alaska News first reported the smaller design in July.
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About Huna Totem Corporation
Photo: Moira Dunworth via Wikimedia Commons · Photo source · CC BY 2.0
hunatotem.com ↗Hoonah, AK 99829, USA
Huna Totem Corporation is the Alaska Native village corporation for Hoonah, the Tlingit community in Southeast Alaska. It is owned by its shareholders and has built its business largely around cruise tourism.
The corporation owns the Icy Strait Point cruise destination near Hoonah and has expanded into cruise ports elsewhere in Southeast and into vessels of its own. In Juneau it is developing Áak'w Landing, a cruise dock with shops and a bus lot on the uplands, a project that has gone through federal permitting and city planning review as its costs and size changed.
Its decisions shape how many cruise visitors reach Hoonah and Juneau and on what terms, including long contracts with cruise lines. Through subsidiaries such as HunaTek it also takes federal government contracts outside tourism.