The Buffalo News | Cruise ships on Buffalo's waterfront? 'It's absolutely feasible'

Plans for a redeveloped DL&W Terminal call for music and a public market. Could they also include cruise ships? 

That prospect will be considered when a consultant is chosen in the next couple of months to conduct a feasibility study.

So will the question of whether Buffalo could become a port of call, a home port from where trips originate from, or both.

Patrick Kaler, who heads Visit Buffalo Niagara, is enthusiastic about the possibility and hopes to see cruise ships in Buffalo by 2026. He is familiar with the industry as past executive director of Great Lakes USA, a multistate marketing organization that focuses on attracting cruise ship visitors from Germany and the United Kingdom.

"It's absolutely feasible," Kaler said.

Prospects seem promising for Buffalo to be a port city for smaller touring cruise ships that typically hold 200 people, given Gov. Kathy Hochul's comments in August about hoping to see them in Buffalo and the enthusiastic reception officials say they have received from the cruise ship industry itself. 

Buffalo could join Great Lakes port cities such as Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Duluth and Milwaukee in providing day excursions or overnight trips. The benefits to Buffalo, Kaler said, would include visits to the city's restaurants, bars and cultural attractions, as well as hotel stays and air travel if Buffalo becomes a home port.

Last year, the eight cruise ship companies working on the Great Lakes from April to October had a combined 20,000 passengers and estimated $105 million economic impact for the localities, Kaler said.

He thinks the DL&W Terminal could be an ideal location, with cruise ships bringing people right into downtown.

"The DL&W seems to me to make the most sense," Kaler said. "To have one of these big boats coming into downtown would also look really cool."

Development eyed for the second floor of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Terminal at the foot of Main Street would include a bustling public space and transit hub on a resurrected Buffalo waterfront.

"We are confident the industry would be interested in Buffalo," said Steven Ranalli, president of Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp., the state agency that would be responsible for making it happen.   

The prospect of cruise shops coming into Buffalo would add another dimension to waterfront offerings.

A home port has more requirements than just a place to dock. The space would have to accommodate fuel for the ships, the loading and unloading of luggage, parking, ship sanitation and the presence of Customs officials for Canadian excursions. The area would have to be big enough for the larger ships of 400 or more passengers that the industry anticipates in the future.

It is believed the DL&W could work as both a home port and port of call.

The feasibility study is expected to be concluded by the end of the year, Ranalli said.

"We are already starting to talk to the ship companies, and are going to host the Great Lakes USA annual meeting in Buffalo in May," Kaler said. "We are really entrenching ourselves to prepare for it."