Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
‘Fixing the front door’
Projects aim to ease traveler pain between Broward’s airport, seaport, convention center
By now, there are thousands of travelers who are coursing through Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades as the holiday travel season lurches into full swing.
But to reach their final destinations — whether it’s a local hotel, vacation rental, or cruise ship — many need to rely on a hodgepodge of shuttles, rental cars. taxis, ride shares and buses. During prime flight times, the airport is a crush of vehicles all jockeying to pick up or deliver passengers at one of four busy terminals.
While the COVID-19 pandemic that slammed the nation’s tourism and transportation systems to the ground is presumptively under control, travelers have returned to the nation’s
airlines and cruise lines in droves, which is a good thing for a local economy that relies heavily on consumer services. For its part, the airport is in the midst of a strong rebound in airline passengers while the numbers of cruise passengers using Port Everglades has nearly returned to the pre-COVID levels in 2019, according to preliminary figures.
In mid-December, Mark Gale, CEO/ director of the Broward County Aviation Department, briefed members of the influential Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority about the airport’s plans for future expansion. While he discussed projects such as the new $404 million Terminal 5 scheduled to be constructed in a partnership with JetBlue Airways, he said there is an immediate objective that is crucial to accomplish: “Fixing the front door” to make the airport more amenable for growth and traveler convenience.
Three key projects
In his presentation to the downtown business leaders, Gale noted there are three projects aimed at moving people faster and easing congestion: an Intermodal Center to serve people coming and going by car, rail and shuttle; an automated people mover that could move people around the airport; and a light rail system that can “seamlessly” connect the seaport and airport with the Greater Fort Lauderdale Broward County Convention Center, which itself is in the midst of a major redevelopment project.
The aviation department is taking the lead on the intermodal center and people mover. The Broward County Transportation Department is overseeing the build-out of the proposed light rail connector, which according to department estimates could carry between 130,000 to 665,000 riders annually.
Intermodal Center
Comment: “I refer to it as a nexus facility where all forms of transportation would kind of congregate,” Gale said. Key elements:
■ Airport-seaport connector station.
■ Broward Commuter South rail station.
■ People mover stop.
■ 6,700 additional parking spaces
■ Commercial shopping hub
Estimated cost: $835 million.
Status: Project definition document completed in December 2022. Currently in environmental review phase, which could be completed next summer. 2029
Anticipated completion: Automated People Mover
Comment: “We are still moving people around on our campus with shuttles,” Gale said. “I have a fleet of 50 shuttle different buses that are just contributing to roadway congestion and whatnot. It’s time for us to actually step into the 21st century here and start moving people around easier and cleaner throughout our facility.”
Key elements:
■ Three-mile loop.
■ Deliver passengers to terminals and parking garages.
■ Two-way system.
Cost: $855 million
Status: In 12-month environmental review phase
Anticipated completion date: 2030 Airport/seaport/ convention center connector
Comment: “We’re looking at a $1.2 billion investment,” said Coree Cuff Lonegen, general manager/director of the county transportation department. “The funding for that primarily would be our (county) surtax. It can’t pay for all of it. We are going to be applying for grants from the Federal Transit Administration.”
Key elements:
■ Light rail (3.5 miles).
■ Three stations.
■ “Elevated guideway” that would run mostly over county property.
■ A maintenance facility to be determined
■ Extensions under consideration for Broward Boulevard and State Road 7 “with east-west connections along Sunrise or Commercial Boulevards.”
■ Part of broader countywide Premium Mobility Plan (PREMO), which is designed to enhance public transportation.
Cost: $1.25 billion, “which does not include permanent light rail maintenance facility/ property acquisition costs,” according to county transportation department.
Status: Pre-engineering.
Anticipated completion date: 2028 Better facilities for cruisers
Gale said it’s also time to provide better spaces for cruise line passengers who spend hours waiting for flights back home. For that, the aviation department is proposing a commercial center at the Intermodal Center featuring new concessions, entertainment dwelling areas and other amenities.
“We have so many people that come back from cruises at 6 o’ clock in the morning and the ships pull in and their flights don’t leave until 4 o’ clock in the afternoon. And they’re sitting around the concourses on the floor. We need to do better. We can do better and we will do better. Our vision is to create a commercial center that gives people the opportunity to not only rest but to eat, to entertain themselves and be able to enjoy. Good for them. Good for us.
“But the notion of everybody lying around on the floors with their phones plugged into wall chargers and all that stuff — I think we can do better than that as we go forward,” he said.
Other county transportation and tourism leaders agreed the projects are needed as the area becomes a bigger draw for visitors.
“You have the convention center, the airport and the seaport within a quarter of a mile to a mile of each other,” said Gregory Stuart, executive director of the Broward metropolitan organization, which helps organize and find funding for transportation projects in the county.
“It’s a matter of trying to get some semblance of a system in place,” Stuart said in a telephone interview. “It’s a relatively smart way to handle a large and complex problem that most people don’t think about in their everyday lives.”
People only think about them, he suggested, when they’re stuck in traffic jams on U.S. 1 or the 17th Street Causeway while en route to the airport or to Port Everglades, one of the busiest cruise ports in the world.
Jonathan Daniels, chief executive and port director at Port Everglades, indicated that the arrival of shorter-duration cruises and luxury cruises are drawing more travelers to the port.
“Connectivity between the two transportation assets is absolutely crucial,” said Daniels, who is working closely with Gale on the issue.
“The proximity (of the port with the airport) is one of the ways we have been marketing to cruise lines,” he said.
Older, retired cruise vacationers are coming from greater distances to sail on luxury ships. “They are spending a lot of time in our community pre-cruise and postcruise.”
More people driving in
In the meantime, cruise lines have been offering shorter-duration cruises, which “have a tendency to be more of a drive-in market.”
“It is stressing our parking,” he said, adding the port spent money to create a new surface parking lot for three- and four-day cruisers.
A survey showed the port is “seeing an increase in people coming by car,” said spokeswoman Joy Oglesby, with the visitors using “ride-shares, carpooling, and rentals/ personal vehicles.”
The survey found that 26% of cruisers “drove their own vehicles to the port and 35% took a taxi or ride share.” That’s up from 18% and 30% respectively in 2015. Apart from the study, Oglesby said, the port found that the use of its parking garages and lots was on the rise year over year, with 132,261 vehicles parked at the port during the 2022
23 season versus 107,627 the season before.
But many cruisers are flying into the Broward airport for its proximity to the port.
“From our third-party survey of cruise guests in 2022-23, we found 22% of the cruise passengers came to Port Everglades directly from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, of which 70% said they chose FLL because it is close to the port,” she said.
Convention center to drive more traffic
The Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center, which fronts Southeast 17th Street and is also adjacent to cruise ship docks at the port, contains an 801-room high rise “headquarter” hotel, an extended main exhibit hall with 350,000 square feet contiguous space, a new 65,000 square foot ballroom facing the Intracoastal Waterway and a waterfront plaza with multiple group even spaces, according to a county website.
Stacy Ritter, CEO and president of Visit Lauderdale, the county’s tourism promotion agency, acknowledged during the October opening of the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show that the opening of the hotel and expanded convention center space would likely add to traffic in the area, but suggested the new transportation projects would provide relief.
“We know that Federal Highway and 17th Street get clogged with people coming from the airport,” she said in an interview at the time. “It will get harder when the hotel is built. Then they will be coming directly to the convention center as opposed to now when they may be going to the beach or someplace else. For a little while it’s going to be problematic and it’ll be a little painful but when you see what’s coming on the other side, that’s the price of progress.”