HOUSTON – Local 2 Investigates found out what happens if you build it and no one comes. That's what is happening at an $81 million cruise ship facility at the Port of Houston.
Your tax dollars paid for it, and you were supposed to be able to take cruises from there by now. So why is it sitting empty, with no cruise ships in sight?
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"Why is it there?" asked a tourist about to board a Carnival cruise ship at the Port of Galveston. "It's like having an airport with no airplanes."
Every week, cruise ships load up and ship out of Galveston, but it's quiet and empty at the Port of Houston's Bayport cruise terminal. There are no tourists, no cruise ships and no immediate plans for either one.
The cruise terminal sits on the Houston Ship Channel, next door to an industrial container terminal. It was part of the port's Bayport bond election in 1999 and 2007. Voters approved the idea both times. The port touted the cruise terminal as the new place for you to walk onto a luxurious cruise ship.
"Basically, they (the Port of Houston) take the philosophy, 'Build it and they will come,'" said Larry Tobin, a Bayport critic and former City Council member at the City of Taylor Lake Village. "But what happens when all money that you've got, and you build it and nobody comes? Whose head rolls for that kind of decision?"
Since the Bayport cruise terminal opened last year, it's only business came when Carnival Cruise Lines couldn't use the damaged Port of Galveston after Hurricane Ike. There's been no original cruise business at the facility. Tobin questions whether the port did enough research to determine if the cruise industry was interested in the Bayport terminal.
"Was there any cruise line that wanted to come?" asked Tobin.
Port leaders told Local 2 Investigates they believe the ships will come. They just don't know when.
"We're very, very confident we're going to have a customer," said Wade Battles, acting executive director of the Port of Houston.
"I'm not worried about being in the cruise business," Port of Houston Authority chairman Jim Edmonds said. "The answer is that it's not where you'd want to be, right? But there are certain things that happen in the world that you can't control."
Edmonds blames the delay on the poor economy causing a downturn in the cruise ship industry. However, Edmonds said the port did do its homework.
"We don't do things haphazardly," argued Edmonds. "We do things for business reasons."
Right now, port leaders say the only way cruise ships will begin to use the Bayport terminal in the near future is if another hurricane or other unforeseen event shuts down another cruise terminal that already has ships.
"Basically, in the next year, if there's not another weather event, do you see passengers here?" asked Local 2 Investigative reporter Robert Arnold.
"I do not," said Battles. "No. Not in the year 2010."
"When do you see passengers coming in here?" Arnold asked.
"Well, we are hopeful it will be very soon," Battles said.
Battles believes when the economy rebounds, a cruise company will choose the Port of Houston as its home port. But Battles said he's not in serious negotiations with any cruise lines, only discussions.
Local 2 Investigates discovered one thing that's not going to change is the time it takes the cruise lines to get ships from the Port of Houston out to sea. Several cruise ship industry experts said they believe that's one of the main reasons why cruise lines aren't coming to Bayport.
It takes a ship just 45 minutes to get out to sea from the Port of Galveston, but it takes twice that time -- around two hours -- to get from the Port of Houston through the ship channel and out to sea.
"You have some very successful ports that have even longer voyages," Battles said.
Either way, Galveston is booked for at least 150 cruises next year.
There's no ship in sight for Bayport.
While you paid for the Port of Houston's cruise terminal, the Port of Galveston told us its own business -- not taxpayers -- footed the bill for its cruise buildings and expansions.
The Port of Galveston's deputy director said port leaders never would have been able to take a gamble on a new cruise terminal unless they had cruise ships already lined up to use it.