After months of discussion, Manatee County’s last option for a ferry landing in Holmes Beach was tossed out of the water.
Mainsail Lodging & Development president Joe Collier opted not to sell a Waterline Villas & Marina boat slip to the county for a Gulf Islands Ferry stop, according to Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth and City Commissioner Dan Diggins.
Collier did not respond to an April 10 call from The Islander.
The service currently shuttles people between downtown Bradenton and the Historic Bridge Street Pier in Bradenton Beach.
It previously stopped at the Anna Maria City Pier before the 2024 hurricanes destroyed the structure’s walkway and the county hopes to build a new ferry landing adjacent to the new pier.
On the other hand, a ferry landing has never been established in Holmes Beach, which lacks a municipal pier.
The county needs a public dock for the ferry service, but has shown little interest in the Kingfish Boat Ramp, 752 Manatee Ave., Holmes Beach, due to the potential cost of redeveloping the facility to accommodate the service.
So the county set its sights on the Waterline, where it proposed to purchase at least one boat slip in order to establish a ferry stop in the marina.
The concept was met with pushback earlier this year from a group of Holmes Beach residents who collected more than 40 signatures on a petition in opposition.
They said bringing the ferry into the marina would be “invasive” since the marina’s entrance channel runs between multiple properties in the city’s R-1 zoning district, which is designated for low-density residential use.
Those petitioners can now rest easy.
Titsworth told The Islander April 10 that Collier told her and other local officials that he would not sell a boat slip for a ferry landing.
She said Collier’s main concerns included a lack of consistency with the catamarans in use, as they are dependent on weather conditions to operate, and the inability of the county’s incoming third vessel to use the marina.
The third vessel cost the county $3 million to build and is designed to carry 96 passengers in an enclosed area with air conditioning and heat.
Because the new ferry could not navigate the marina, the county planned to run it to Anna Maria or Bradenton Beach, then run the existing catamarans as “hoppers” between the island cities.
On top of the inconsistency of the smaller catamarans, another problem was that the ferry service would end up competing with local sightseeing services, according to Titsworth.
“We already have local captains that are offering sightseeing. We already have several of them in that boat basin alone, and they have a certain rate they have to charge that’s not government subsidized. If they can jump on the county hoppers for $7, why would they pay full rate to the captains here trying to make a living?” Titsworth said.
Additionally, the marina area lacks the facilities needed to accommodate the number of visitors who would arrive there by ferry.
“If it’s 49 people getting off and 49 people getting on, where do you queue all those people?” Diggins said. “There’s really no place to put all the people.”
Diggins said he was disappointed at the end of the day that Holmes Beach lacks a ferry stop.
“I really wanted a landing in Holmes Beach,” he said. “But I have to be realistic here. I don’t see the long-term future with the (hoppers).”
Elliott Falcione, executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau and lead on the county’s ferry efforts, did not respond to an April 10 call from The Islander.
Wow, it’s almost like the blind sow finding an acorn, a public official pointing out that there are plenty of sightseeing vessels and guide boats on the island and in the vicinity; except that all of these officials signed on to the waste of taxes because this costly form of transportation was going to bring workers to the island and save on necessary vehicle transportation. In the fantasy world of government accounting just how many worker vehicles and tourists has these sightseeing trips saved?