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The Feinstein Group of Companies contracted Intercoastal Marine Inc. to handle marine construction at Port Coral, a new cruise ship docking facility near Belize City.

Equipment is being mobilized and construction will start shortly, principal Michael Feinstein told Seatrade Cruise News. Panama-based Intercoastal Marine is a leading marine construction firm in Central America and the Caribbean.

Berths for four big ships

The work entails two finger piers that will be able to accommodate four of the largest cruise ships simultaneously. From there, it is a short tender ride in flat, calm water to North Drowned Cay, linked by a causeway to the mainland.

Currently, passengers have a long tender in open waters, landing at Belize Tourism Village, which can get congested.

'This is really needed,' said Mike McFadden of Florida-based MAC Maritime, Port Coral's cruise industry liaison. 'Everyone is very interested and excited because there is a genuine need for more docking facilities in the Western Caribbean.'

McFadden said he expects to secure formal agreements with cruise lines in the near future.

One year ago, Belizean businessman Feinstein - who opened Belize Tourism Village in 1994 - broke ground for the $67m Port Coral, formerly known as Stake Bank Cruise Port.

Expanded to 40 acres

The 40-acre site - up from the 25 acres earlier planned - will be a gateway to Belize and a resort-like destination in itself, with three beaches, a zip line, a tethered helium balloon (like that on Royal Caribbean's Perfect Day at CocoCay), a pool zone, bars and restaurants, retail, and beachside, oceanside and over-water cabanas. Crew get their own facilities.

'It's gotten more elaborate,' Feinstein said.

The Feinstein Group bought its own dredge, and dredging is ongoing. Progress includes a number of seawalls that enclose the beach area. There will be one mile of beaches including a sweeping family beach, a teen beach and a crew beach. A dedicated watersports area is separate.

Belize is not known as a beach destination but with Port Coral, passengers will be able to step off their ship and stroll to the beach.

The pool zone, meanwhile, will have a themed grotto bar, central saltwater lagoon with acrylic viewing windows and helmet diving.

Gateway to the mainland

With all its enticements, Port Coral is still a gateway to the mainland for adventure excursions. Once cruisers take the short tender to North Drowned Cay, they will find an ample motor coach staging area.

Future plans envision a causeway to North Drowned Cay, so passengers could alight from their ship at Port Coral and travel directly by motor coach to the mainland, eliminating the need to tender at all.

Opening May 2021

Feinstein targets a May 2021 opening for Port Coral when the marine works are due to be completed. At that time, the upland will not be 100% finished but functional, he said.

As soon as two years after Port Coral's debut passenger numbers at Belize City could rise from 1m annually now to 1.8m in 2023, according to Feinstein, citing a cruise line projection.

Other partners in the Port Coral project include Schneider Engineering & Consulting (engineering and coastal design), EDSA and Simeon Halstead Associates (upland design) and Atlantic Bank Ltd. (lead financial arranger).

Source: Seatrade Cruise News

Joined: Nov 2000
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Who are they trying to kid? People will get off the ship and stay right there in the make believe Belize. Then they will go home and tell everyone they "have been to Belize." I do not see any benefit to REAL Belize people or culture.


Harriette
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Here's What the New Cruise Port in Belize Will Look Like

A new state-of-the-art cruise port is coming to Belize named Port Coral which will be able to handle four Voyager-class cruise ships at any one time!

There is a new state-of-the-art cruise port coming to Belize which will become a popular port of call for cruise ships once it is completed. Port Coral will help solve all the challenges Belize City currently suffers to offer a great cruise passenger experience.

At the moment any cruise ship calling to the city in the western Caribbean can only anchor a few miles offshore from the current Tourism Village port. Cruise passengers have to take a 20-minute tender ride to go ashore and if weather conditions aren't favorable it's common for cruise ships to cancel the port of call.

Coral Port will make the experience much smoother as cruise ships will actually be able to dock rather than tender. There will be two large piers each being able to berth two vessels. The location of the new port will be four miles away from Belize City on Stake Bank Island and offer natural deep water access.

The port will be able to handle a large amount of capacity with a total of four Royal Caribbean Voyager-class vessels able to dock at any given time. That would be over 12,000 cruisers being able to enjoy the modern facility, there will be no reason to leave!

Cruise Hive readers can take a look at the very latest renderings which have been provided to us:

An authentic Belizean experience will be offered once cruise visitors arrive with high-quality services and amenities including a marina, upscale shops, restaurants, beaches, and a wide range of entertainment venues. There will be an area with kiosks for vendors to showcase the history of Belize and even an independent entertainment and shopping area just for the crew members!

Getting to the mainland will be easy with visitors able to get a short tender ride from the international port of entry at Port Coral to the terminal at North Drowned Caye. From there guests can get to the mainland via a vehicle causes which is open to the public.

Tour operates and and taxis will be able to have their own labelled kiosks inside the North Drowned Caye terminal along with parking to accommodate 200 buses and taxis. This will become the central hub for tours in Belize.

The development of Coral Port has already started and at the moment the twin piers which can cater to two cruise ships each are set to be completed in November 2021 as long as there are no delays due to the current global situation. The entire project should be complete at the end of 2021 and if there is a delay it will be in early 2022 instead. The project is being developed by The Feinstein Group and Stake Bank Enterprises.

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Construction of Stake Bank's Cruise Ship Docking Facility Commences

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Stake Bank Enterprise Limited is very pleased to inform the media and general public that the vessels carrying the crew and equipment of the successful company contracted to construct our two large Cruise Ships Docking Piers. These piers are designed to accommodate four of the largest class cruise vessels (ships) in the Cruise Tourism Industry.

The facility on Stake Bank Island has been fully approved and permitted as a port of entry and exit and is appropriately name "PORT CORAL".

The company that was successful in the bidding process and now contracted to build the docks is Inter-Coastal Marine Inc. with head offices in Chile and Panama. This company is world re-known for successfully constructing many huge over water piers and is highly recommended by the Cruise Industry.

Today is very historic for Belize and especially Belize City, which will see the commencement of its first Cruise Ship Docking Facility that has been a long time coming. Completion of the docks are schedule for completion by the first quarter of 2022. This is very timely since there is the expectation that majority of Belizeans will be getting vaccinated against Covid-19 during 2021, as well as the first world countries, therefore the Cruise Tourism Industry in Belize is projected to commence with a huge influx of ship calls to Belize. This definitely will bring back thousands of jobs immediately, which will drive downwards the unemployment of the country.

Additionally, by giving the cruise ships the ability to dock and eliminating the dangerous mid-sea transfers to the tender boats it is projected that almost all the manifested passengers will disembark the cruise ships and are expected to take the popular excursions to many of the historic and fun sites across the country.

In tandem, Stake Bank Enterprise Limited is finalizing its engineering plans for the construction of the causeway that will connect Belize City to Stake Bank Island (Port Coral) via North Drowned. The causeway is fully approved as a two (2) lanes vehicular elevated bridge that will allow for continuous access to and from Stake Bank Island (Port Coral), thus eliminating all need for tendering operations.

Stake Bank Enterprise Limited is very excited to bring this huge investment to Belize and is double excited about all the jobs it has created since construction started in May of 2020 and onwards. At present the large buildings, the massive swimming pool, the shopping plaza and land improvements are presently under full construction employing hundreds of hard working Belizeans.

Stake Bank Enterprise Limited will soon be requesting applications for rental of the varying spaces and also for vacancies for the many long term jobs that will also be added. Next week the large cargo vessel will be arriving from China with all our steel pipe piles and we have planned a media day at Stake Bank Island for to be witness to these historic events.

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Minister of Tourism Tours the Stake Bank Port Coral Project

Hon. Anthony Mahler, Minister of Tourism & Diaspora Relations, conducted a tour of the construction site of the Stake Bank Port Coral Project, a new cruise ship docking facility near Belize City on Friday, March 19th.

Minister Mahler was accompanied during the tour by Hon. Oscar Reque�a, Minister of Rural Transformation, Community Development, Labour & Local Government; Hon. Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development, Climate Change & Disaster Risk Management; Hon. Gilroy Usher Sr., Minister of State of Human Development, Families & Indigenous Peoples' Affairs; Hon. Andre Perez, Minister of the Blue Economy & Civil Aviation; and Mr. Evan Tillett, Chairman of the BTB Board of Directors. The team was hosted by Mr. Michael Feinstein and Mr. Troy Gabb from Stake Bank Enterprises Ltd.

During the visit, the team received a tour of the development and rendering of the project design. The planned 40-acre development will be a gateway to Belize and a resort-like destination in itself. The project includes three beaches (a swimming and snorkeling lagoon, family and teen beach), a zip line, a tethered helium balloon, a pool and watersports zone, bars and restaurants, retail shopping, beach club, and beachside, oceanside, and over-water cabanas.

The US $82.5 Million project is being financed by Stake Bank Enterprise Limited (owned by Michael Feinstein) and will be Belize City's first-ever cruise docking port capable of accommodating four of the largest cruise ships simultaneously, along with a state-of-the-art tourism village. Port Coral is 10 minutes from Belize City and will provide tendering services to the mainland along with tour dispatch for excursions such as snorkeling, cave tubing, etc.

The Stake Bank Port Coral Project is expected to be completed by March 2022.

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Stake Bank Causeway Still Under Review

Doctor Kenrick Williams gave a brief comment on the Stake Bank Cruise Port project where an Environmental Compliance Plan was approved and allowed for the investor to construct a causeway in the Belize harbour, linking the ship docking facility to the mainland. C.E.O. Doctor Williams says that a review process is still underway.

Dr. Kenrick Williams, C.E.O., Ministry of Sustainable Development, Disaster Rick Management & NEMO


"I think that matter is still being reviewed at the Department of the Environment in terms of the environmental clearance and that process. I think it has been thirteen years from the time of submission; there has been several ECPs that were signed. So there is further analysis that we have to do as it relates to that project and get some guidance as well at the highest level as to how we treat with this causeway. So that's still in the review process."

Channel 5


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