A groundbreaking ceremony was held Thursday to celebrate the start of construction for Port Milwaukee’s South Shore Cruise Dock project.
The South Shore Cruise Dock, to be located at 2320 S. Lincoln Memorial Drive, will serve as the port-of-call for Seawaymax vessels such as the Viking Octantis cruise ship, which has previously docked at the City Heavy Lift Dock. Milwaukee has two main docks for large ships: the City Heavy Lift Dock near the Metropolitan Milwaukee Sewage District (MMSD) facility and Port Wisconsin near Discovery World.
“We currently dock Viking ships right next to MMSD,” said Jackie Q. Carter, director of Port Milwaukee. “That’s not the welcome you want to give to visitors.”
This year, passengers on Great Lakes cruise ships generated $2.5 million in economic impact over 22 visits to Milwaukee. Next year, with the construction of the new South Shore Cruise Dock and more expected turnaround and transit stops, passengers are expected to generate $3.5 million in economic impact over 55 visits to the city, according to Visit Milwaukee.
The construction of an additional dock fit for large vessels is part of the city’s plans to attract more cruise ships and passengers to Milwaukee. To maintain Milwaukee’s status as a premiere destination for docking, the city needs to compete with other Great Lakes port-of-calls, including Duluth, Minnesota and others, said Carter.
In recent years, cruise ship docking at Port Milwaukee has ramped up, welcoming more passengers than ever before. This year, Port Milwaukee welcomed 22 port calls from six different vessels, bringing roughly 11,000 passengers to the city. That’s down from 27 port calls and 13,568 cruise ship passengers in 2024.
The $17 million South Shore Cruise Dock is expected to be open and operating by the middle of next year’s cruising season.
At its inception, the project received $2 million from an amendment to the city’s 2023 budget, $4 million in capital tourism grants from the state and $1.285 million in matching funds from Port Milwaukee. The project was allocated another $5 million as part of this year’s city budget, which satisfied its total funding needs.
“I’m not kidding about wanting to grow Milwaukee and this is one of the avenues in which we’ll work to see that happen,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson.
More articles about cruise ships in Milwaukee:
- See photos inside Great Lakes cruise ship Pearl Mist docked in Milwaukee
- Viking Octantis returns to Port Milwaukee to begin the 2025 cruise season
- Great Lakes passenger cruises expected to draw record numbers in 2025
- Cruise ship passenger visits to Milwaukee up 18% in 2024
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