Inside the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant

[spuwho]

That would be great, but the Dames Point won't allow for any modern ships. The carnival that is at Jax port barely fits underneath and it's considered small. I've also heard that it's going out of commission this year or next due to its age and amenities.
In order to compete we'll need much larger ships and a much larger Dames Point.

Hard to believe a bridge they just built is already obsolete but I guess it is what it is...

There is no way planners could have conceived of the super cruise boats and post-Panamax cargo ships when the Dames Point Bridge was designed over 25 years ago. Everyone used to think the Verrazano Narrows would never impede any boat, yet one of the super cruise ships had to get advance notice to be able to clear it last year.

The article does state the following:

Redmond said Friday that he and his partners purchased the site because of its location and hopes for a cruise-ship terminal.

Also remember that one growing part of the cruise industry is the smaller high end cruise boats. Regent, Windstar and others prefer to run smaller cruise boats catering to higher end clientele. I could easily see a luxury cruise terminal at the Ford site. This would avoid the bridge clearance and river draft problems and align with some of audience the Shipyards will appeal too.

[Marle Brando]

I know most will take this news lightly but I think this shows the impact of what the Shipyards will have already. The fact that the investor mentioned Khan's vision is significant and may lead to more land around the sports district being purchased in the very near future. I too am hoping for a luxury terminal on that site eventually as it could be the niche Jax needs to separate itself from the more dominant cruise ports of Miami, Tampa etc. Either way this is big news!

[strider]

Redmond said there have been "off and on" discussions with JaxPort about the property's potential use as a cruise ship terminal. "We've just not been able to create a viable corporation that could see that project through," he said.

...

Redmond said Friday that he and his partners purchased the site because of its location and hopes for a cruise-ship terminal.

There does not seem to be any reference from the NEW owners that a cruise ship terminal would be even pursued.

- core dumped:
The carnival that is at Jax port barely fits underneath and it's considered small. I've also heard that it's going out of commission this year or next due to its age and amenities.

Do we know what happens to old cruise ships like this?  Are they decommissioned as it is better tax/ cash flow/ income wise to get the new bigger ship rather than totally refurnish an older ship?  Would a ship like this one be a candidate for a smaller cruise line to buy and refurnish as a "boutique" cruise ship? Could that type of work be handled by the companies in Jacksonville? Would that help with something like making the Ford Plant a cruise terminal? Heck, could the Ford plant be refurbished to do that type of work and then just modified to act as the terminal afterwards? Just saw this big potential to put people to work and help multiple local companies if something like that could be done.

[coredumped]

I'm not in the travel industry or anything so I'm not the best person to ask, I do enjoy cruising though
I've seen a documentary about how they take cruise ships apart and harvest the materials when they retire.
The good news is that all 8 of the fantasy ships are still sailing:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_class_cruise_ship
And it looks like they did some renovations on our ship recently,so maybe what I heard was just a rumor.

[coredumped]

In fact, here's a picture I took in 2013 of the fascination going under the dames point:

[thelakelander]

I hate to rain on the idea of making the old Ford plant a cruise terminal, but other than trying to force a new use into the building to preserve it, I don't see the point. The newer ships are larger, so a new cruise terminal would have to be east of the Dames Point Bridge or someplace like Fernandina Beach.

If the goal is to go for a niche catering to smaller ships, why not take them right into downtown as opposed to the middle of heavy industry a few miles NE of downtown?

[spuwho]

While downtown would be nice, I dont think it would be viable long term without appropriate surrounding facilities.

Even of the Ford plant falls apart as a luxury cruise dock, the area is ripe for some form of redevelopment.

Yes, today its a poorly maintained industrial zone. Perhaps it can be purposed as a marina with associated pubs and bars.

The key point is it is now in the hands of someone who wants to make something of it.

Only 2 things can happen now......get a dev proposal or it will mysteriously burn down.

[thelakelander]

Or continue to keep it as an industrial use. Perhaps something similar to the old Ford plant in Richmond, CA?

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-mar-ford-assembly-plant-comes-back-to-life

The Ford Richmond Plant, formally the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant, in Richmond, California, was the largest assembly plant to be built on the West Coast and its conversion to wartime production during World War II aided the United States' war effort. The plant is part of the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Built in 1930 during the Great Depression, the assembly plant measures nearly 500,000 square feet. The factory was a major stimulant to the local and regional economy and was an important development in Richmond's inner harbor and port plan. Ford became Richmond's third largest employer, behind Standard Oil and the Santa Fe Railroad. It is also an outstanding example of 20th-century industrial architecture designed by architect Albert Kahn, known for his "daylight factory" design, which employed extensive window openings that became his trademark. The main building is composed of a two-story section, a single-story section, a craneway, a boiler house and a shed canopy structure over the railroad track.

To ensure that America prepared for total war by mobilizing all the industrial might of the United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt banned the production of civilian automobiles during WWII. The Richmond Ford Assembly Plant switched to assembling jeeps and to putting the finishing touches on tanks, half-tracked armored personnel carriers, armored cars and other military vehicles destined for the Pacific Theater. By July 1942, military combat vehicles began flowing into the Richmond Ford plant to get final processing before being transported out the deep-water channel to the war zones. The "Richmond Tank Depot" (only one of three tank depots in the country) as the Ford plant was then called, helped keep American fighting men supplied with up-to-the-minute improvements in their battle equipment. Approximately 49,000 jeeps were assembled and 91,000 other military vehicles were processed here.

In mobilizing the wartime production effort to its full potential, Federal military authorities and private industry began to work closely together on a scale never seen before in American history. This laid the groundwork for what became known as the "military-industrial complex" during the Cold War years. This Assembly Plant was one cog in the mobilization of the "Arsenal of Democracy" and a historic part of what is today's industrial culture of the United States.

After the war, the devastation to the local economy as a result of the closing of the Richmond Shipyards would have been crippling had it not been for the continued production of the Ford Plant. The last Ford was assembled in February 1953, with the plant being closed in 1956 and production transferred to the San Jose Assembly Plant because of the inability to accommodate increased productivity demands.

In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake severely damaged the plant. After the earthquake, the City of Richmond repaired and prepared the Ford Assembly building for rehabilitation and selected Orton Development as the developer of the rehabilitation project. In 2008, after the building's rehabilitation was completed, tenants including SunPower Corporation and Mountain Hardware made the building their new home. The craneway of the building is also used for banquets, weddings, and corporate events.

[ChriswUfGator]

In fact, here's a picture I took in 2013 of the fascination going under the dames point:

Ah geez, you're not kidding. That thing barely fits.