Huna Totem Scales Back Juneau Cruise Dock as Costs Top $250M

Huna Totem Corporation has cut the planned indoor space at Áak’w Landing in downtown Juneau to roughly 18,000 square feet from 50,000 square feet after the original design’s cost estimate rose above $250 million. The corporation is trying to keep the private cruise dock and waterfront development near its initial $150 million budget while holding to a hoped-for opening for the 2028 Alaska cruise season.

The revised plan keeps the proposed welcome center, cultural center, retail space, waterfront dining and seawalk extension, but drops the larger multi-story buildings and reduces the deck and overwater seawalk. The first construction phase would deliver 9,868 square feet of interior space, with 7,960 square feet deferred to a later phase that has no announced timetable.

“When you look at that original drawing the plan had been to build to the full property line,” Susan Bell, Huna Totem’s vice president of strategic initiatives, told the Juneau Independent. Bell said the redesign “scaled back to the property as it exists now” while keeping what she called “an excellent guest experience and an excellent place for residents.”

Costs drive a smaller waterfront build

The higher estimate for the original design followed delays, appeals and higher material costs, including tariffs affecting steel and other construction inputs. A geotechnical analysis also raised cost concerns for work over the water and beyond the shoreline, where heavier buildings would have required deeper pilings.

The revised site plan no longer includes underground parking. Pedestrian access is planned at street level without escalators. Huna Totem is keeping bus parking unchanged for tour-group movements, while the broader waterfront plan still includes new downtown parking and a public park.

Fifth dock would add berth capacity, not daily ship count

Áak’w Landing is planned on unused tidelands next to the U.S. Coast Guard Station along the Gastineau Channel as Juneau’s fifth downtown cruise dock. The project is intended to allow ships that now anchor and tender passengers ashore to dock directly, eliminating an estimated 2,400 tendering trips a year.

The berth also includes shore power capability, allowing ships to plug into Juneau’s mostly hydropower-backed electrical grid while in port. The project would double the number of ships able to use shore power in Juneau, but it would not increase the city’s five-ship daily limit.

Juneau handled 1,700,842 cruise passengers in 2025, following 1,732,000 in 2024 and 1,669,500 in 2023. Starting in 2026, the city is set to enforce daily passenger caps of 16,000 on weekdays and 12,000 on weekends, with a shortened cruise season running from April 28 to October 6.

The project has also faced local opposition, including a citizen petition focused on larger and more numerous cruise ships in Juneau.

Permit review sets the next step

The revised plan has been submitted to the Juneau Borough Assembly for modifications to the conditional use permit first granted in July 2023, an approval that followed Norwegian Cruise Line’s donation of the waterfront property to Huna Totem. Huna Totem has not announced a revised construction timetable, and public hearing periods or further Assembly discussions could still be required before the modified plan can proceed.