New casino ship will launch from port by July

RIIVERA BEACH — The Blue Horizon, a casino day-cruise ship based at the Port of Palm Beach, could be sailing in four to six weeks.

The five-member port commission unanimously approved a five-year, three-month agreement Friday with PB Gaming, which will operate the gambling “cruises to nowhere” on the vessel previously named the Island Breeze.

PB Gaming is slated to pay the port $730,000 a year in passenger fees, an estimated $80,000 in parking fees and $36,470 a year to lease 2,605 square feet of offices on the port administration building’s fourth floor.

The failed Island Breeze’s largest creditor, Source Point LLC, a private equity firm based in Puerto Rico, took over the 600-passenger ship’s charter boat earlier this year.

SourcePoint formed PB Gaming to operate the cruises.

Robert Weisberg, a partner in SourcePoint and PB Gaming, said passenger charges have not been determined, but will be at least $10 per person.

“It will be a great entertainment ship, not just gaming,” Weisberg said.

Manuel Almira, the port’s executive director, said, “The biggest difference is the management team that definitely has intensive, in-depth experience in how to operate a casino boat. They are well-capitalized, unlike others.”

The port’s business development director, Jarra Kaczwara, asked the commission to waive the usual procurement procedures to expedite the installation of shore power, a canopy and fencing.

The Island Breeze carried about 11,000 passengers on 100 day cruises from March to June last year. Its operating company, IBI Palm Beach, filed for bankruptcy in November.

The Island Breeze is one of five casino day cruises that have sailed from the port in recent years, but ceased operating.

Weisberg ran the SunCruz Casino, which stopped operating at the port in 2007 after seven months. The ship was renamed the Black Diamond, and in 2013 became the Island Breeze.

Weisberg said recently the SunCruz could not compete with the much-larger Palm Beach Princess, which went out of business in 2010.

THOMAS CORDY / THE PALM BEACH POST 2014 The Island Breeze casino ship has been renamed the Blue Horizon, and will begin its cruises to nowhere in four to six weeks. PB Gaming, formed by an equity firm creditor of the bankrupt Island Breeze, won a contract Friday to run the cruises.