Port Canaveral won’t pursue plans for a new cruise terminal after commissioners voted to reverse course in the wake of state officials’ raising an alarm that those plans would harm the space industry.

In a Wednesday meeting, the Canaveral Port Authority Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 to drop plans approved in May to build what would have been the seventh cruise terminal at the port in space that currently is a cargo berth on the north side.

The vote comes after officials received a letter earlier this month from Florida Department of Commerce Secretary J. Alex Kelly and Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue charging the port was making decisions that benefited its lucrative cruise business at the cost of needs for the growing commercial space business.

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The letter pointed out the port’s plans would take real estate that could be needed for liquified natural-gas facilities, for instance. But the teeth of the letter was warning that the two state agencies would shift or halt funding to Port Canaveral unless they reversed their decision.

So port commissioners did just that — with all but Commissioner Kevin Markey voting for the reversal.

Board Chairman Micah Loyd said he met with Perdue last week and pitched the idea that the state partner with the port on future expansion needs.

“I think it’s a great idea that the state does understand our business here at the port, and they do take a vested interest in our mission.” Loyd said. “I think we, and I think staff does a great job of balancing the demand for berth space here at Port Canaveral, and there’s no one interest, whether it be space, cargo, commercial fishing, cruising, that’s more important than the other.”

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The port’s decision to pursue an expansion to support the cruise industry on the north side was a shift from earlier stated plans to build out on the south side of the port. The timeline, though, would have seen a northside terminal come online in less than two years versus a five- to six-year turnaround on the south side of the port.

The cruise industry has been booming since the end of the COVID pandemic with Port Canaveral seeing record passenger traffic and revenue.

“We do have strategic thinking here, and what drives us down these different roads,” Commissioner Wayne Justice said. “We talked about statewide assets. The thought of not doing what we plan to do (at North Cargo Berth 8) may cost the state an asset.”

He has said the cruise industry may seek alternatives to Florida if there’s not enough room to support its growing needs. He said the port has been very cognizant of juggling the needs of the space industry, such as working with Space Florida on its proposal for a mass expansion on a different part of the port’s north side to give the ever-growing fleet of support ships for the likes of SpaceX, Blue Origin and others somewhere to park.

“We understand the competing interests that are out there, and we appreciate that,” he said. “We would like to again support the optimization and use of that property, as well as the rest of the port’s property. But again, we’re we’re on board, ready to move forward and show some flexibility here today.”

Commissioner Fritz VanVolkenburgh supported the pullback but had issue with the state’s supposition the port would be a good place to stick LNG facilities. LNG, which does have a presence at the port to support some of the newer cruise ships, requires a high level of safety when handling. But refueling for the cruise industry is done by mobile vessels that don’t remain at the port.

“I know that wasn’t the focus of the letter from the secretaries, but personally … I would not be in favor of having, say an LNG facility such as liquefaction at the port,” he said. “I don’t think that’s a suitable location for it.”

He noted there are thousands of acres north of the port on state and federal property.

“I think would be more conducive to that,” he said noting safety concerns and competing business interests for the limited space at the port. “I just mentioned that as a side because I think that that might come up in the future.”

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He also encouraged more speed pursuing plans put forth in the extensive study by Space Florida that lobbies for use of another area of the north side of the port, the middle turning basin, to support the space industry.

“Looking at the plans that I’ve seen, so far, did not seem very aggressive in terms of a timeline, and I would hope that that would become more aggressive so that we can accommodate these vessels and make the best use of the port,” he said.

Those plans, though, require more than just the port’s buy-in since they force changes on military assets, as well. Meanwhile, the space industry has made moves to make sure its needs are not forgotten by the port — including having language added to the port’s charter last year.

“It’s much better to be in high demand as opposed to being underutilized. So we should be thankful of that and it’s a better challenge to have than not have business come our way,” VanVolkenburgh said. “Unfortunately, the more demand that you get, the smaller the port gets. It shrinks. And so there will be tensions that will rise from that, because the demand is so high, and those tensions will continue, I think, going forward.”

Any move forward on the Space Florida study, for instance, needs support of the state alongside federal agencies in addition to Port Canaveral.

“So the invitation stands,” Loyd said. “That we would love to keep working with the state, keep working with Space Florida, and make sure that that our entire community is successful and the port is successful.”

Commissioner Jerry Allender said “reversing the decision is not easy” and notes the port has done its part to support the space industry providing “an array of landside and waterside assets.”

“Our commitment to the enterprise remains strong,” he said, and although the port has to go back to the drawing board in terms of where it will put its next cruise terminal, “we are confident that solutions can be reached to fulfill our commitment to the space industry as well as to our commitment to the cruise and economic business.”