Port and City of San Francisco officials are celebrating the
completion of the first phase of a new cruise terminal at Pier 27, which will be
used as the headquarters for the 34th America’s Cup Races in 2013.
“The new cruise terminal is a legacy project that will not
only boost tourism and create jobs this summer during the America’s Cup races,
but it will welcome visitors and residents to our waterfront for generations to
come,” San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee said Feb. 26.
The Pier 27 Cruise Terminal is to be named in honor of
former port commissioner and International Longshore and Warehouse Union
President James R. Herman.
After the America’s Cup yacht racing event, which takes
place Sept. 7 to 22, the port is expected to complete the second phase of the cruise
terminal by 2014 to make it operational for cruise ships and create a new 2.5
acre public park known as the Northeast Wharf Plaza.
The James R. Herman terminal will be sized to handle vessels
up to 1,200 feet long and carrying 2,600 passengers and has the capacity at key
areas to allow it to service vessels carrying as many as 5,000 passengers. It
will also be used as a special event facility on non-cruise days.
The project is expected to create more than 1,000 direct
labor jobs during construction.
Pier 27 is currently used as a backup, but is set to replace
the existing facility at Pier 35, which has neither the sufficient capacity to
allow for the increasing length and passenger capacity of new cruise ships nor
the amenities needed for an international cruise terminal.
