Port of Palm Beach is booming thanks to a windfall from Margaritaville at Sea cruise line
The fiscal year 2024 Port of Palm Beach budget is all about Margaritaville at Sea.
Nearly half of the Port’s revenues in the new fiscal year that begins Sunday is expected to come from the cruise line associated with the late Jimmy Buffett. Port commissioners adopted a $22 million budget on Sept. 21, an increase of 16%. The revenue from Margaritaville at Sea will help fund needed infrastructure improvements, according to Port Executive Director Michael Meekins.
Margaritaville at Sea offers three-day, two-night cruises from the Port of Palm Beach to Grand Bahama Island with an option to stay longer at a resort hotel.
Its maiden voyage was on May 14, 2022. It was not long before it had all the business it could handle. Classica Cruise, the company that owns the cruise line, spent more than $40 million to rebrand its ship with the Buffett theme.
In June 2022, its first full month of operation, its passenger count was 13,688. That figure is expected to more than double in fiscal year 2024 as the budget projects that more than 400,000 will patronize the cruise line.
With an increase in parking fees and passengers, revenue is expected to soar from $731,000 to more than $2.2 million, an increase of 70%. Passenger revenue is expected to exceed $7.7 million, an increase of nearly 90%.
The Port is reinvesting some of the money to assist the cruise line. It has agreed to spend $4.7 million to support marketing efforts, more than double what was spent this year.
On the expense side, the Port is spending more than $4.5 million on capital improvements. The Port has seen a significant increase in insurance, so much so that ports throughout Florida are looking to form a coalition to buy insurance on a joint basis to lower costs.
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The Port is also spending much more to maintain and improve its cruise terminal, its rail operation and information technology. Spending on human resources also has increased.
Officials are hopeful that in the next fiscal year it will rent out the parcel abandoned by one of its tenants. Teeters, which became insolvent two years ago, left hundreds of cars in its lot that were supposed to be shipped to Haiti. The Port is looking for another company to perform the same function.
When Teeters went out of business, the Port had to deal with angry car owners who were bilked out of their money. They also had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to clean up the parcel. The Port is in the midst of protracted litigation to recover losses of more than $2 million.
In its lawsuit, the Port is looking to obtain title to five properties allegedly transferred to principals of Teeters that have been owned by the company itself. The transfer is alleged to have occurred shortly after the Port filed its lawsuit.
Mike Diamond is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. He covers Palm Beach County government and transportation. You can reach him at mdiamond@pbpost.com. Help support local journalism. Subscribe today
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville at Sea provides half revenue for Port
