Port’s cruise terminal renovation wins regional award

The Houston Business Journal (HBJ) honored the Galveston Wharves with a 2024 Landmark Award for its $53 million Cruise Terminal 25 renovation and expansion project. The port won in the Special Projects category at the ceremony in Houston on April 11 to recognize the best real estate projects in the greater Houston region.

The project included berth and mooring improvements, the addition of a second boarding bridge, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility that meets new federal standards, and an interior redesign to move passengers through the terminal more efficiently. It was completed in December 2023, in time to welcome the newly built Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Jubilee.

Terminal project partners included tenant Carnival Cruise Line, general contractor Hensel Phelps, architect Bermello Ajamil & Partners and Texas Gulf Construction Co.

In 2023, the same award was presented to the port for its Cruise Terminal 10 construction project in partnership with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line.

Pictured above: Rodger Rees, Galveston Wharves port director and CEO, accepts the Houston Business Journal (HBJ) Landmark Award in the Special Projects category from Bob Charlet, HBJ market president and publisher, at the ceremony in Houston on April 11.

The port is the fourth most popular cruise home port in the U.S. The port also leases and maintains a wide range of cargo facilities on the deep-water Galveston Harbor, which is ranked among the top 50 busiest U.S. cargo waterways. The Galveston Wharves is a self-sustaining city entity whose mission is to generate and reinvest port revenues to benefit the Galveston community with economic growth, jobs and sales tax revenues.