Council says it’s ready to take next steps.

Carrie Jones

Apr 22, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Window Panes Home and Garden.

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BAR HARBOR—The first phase of a draft plan to redevelop Bar Harbor’s ferry terminal into a marina has a current estimated cost of $11.6 million.

This cost, presented to the Town Council, April 21, by GEI, a contracting firm, is the probable construction cost of the concept plan and includes preparing the site, creating a boat launch, landscape, demolishing the existing damaged structures such as the piers, as well as creating footbridges, gangways, and floats.

It also includes a contingency fund of $2.3 million. Soft costs for permitting and engineering are not included in the $11.6 million nor are other potential phases of the project, which were originally presented years ago as an additional estimated $17 million for building construction and another $9.4 million for expanding into the northern portion of the site where the CAT ferry currently operates.

The Bar Harbor Town Council unanimously affirmed the process and agreed it would be ready to take the next steps on the project at 121 Eden Street/Route 3.

The site’s layout would continue to have dedicated parking for passengers of the CAT ferry, which leases part of the land from the town and is itself heavily subsidized by the Canadian government to take passengers from the island to Nova Scotia.

That means it would be dissected for the CAT’s purpose and the town’s purpose.

It would also have space just for tour bus pickups and drop offs near a tender dock. The town currently has a citizen-approved cruise ship passenger restriction of 1,000 or less passenger disembarkations a day without fines.

It also has space for future buildings, which are not included in the current cost estimates or designs.

Features on the waterside include a boat launch with two lanes and a hand carry launch, separated access between the marina and boat launch area, footbridges, gangways, and breakwater style floats, as well as dedicated berthing for recreational boats and dinghies.  There could be potential sources for revenue which were not discussed.

The concept design is in progress—and has been for a while—but the preliminary design and permit strategy have not been started.

A draft master plan was revealed to the Bar Harbor Harbor Committee back in October 2023.

At the time, the project goals included:

• Creating a cohesive masterplan for the marina;
• Expand public access to the water;
• Support the working waterfront;
• Provide public open space;
• Economic uses.

Also at the time, one of those potential uses which was not currently represented in the plan was cruise ship tendering. It had been believed that would likely require a dedicated dock without any other boats on it.

From the audience, Town Council Chair Valerie Peacock said the town hasn’t been tendering for a while, but the plan needs to have enough flexibility to have that so that the town can tender if they want to.

“It depends on the level of visitation and if the town wants to go into the tendering business again,” she’d said.

“The cruise ships come with busses and transportation,” Peacock had said, so the plan would need to have a space for busses, too. “At some point, we need to decide or prioritize if we want to make that happen.”

On April 21, Councilor Joe Minutolo asked about potentially putting in paid parking to help offset the costs and have the Island Explorer use the site as a stop.

Town Manager James Smith said that there are many policy level decisions that can be made in the future—such as the siting of cruise ship tenders—due to the flexibility of the plan.

Parking is crucial, Minutolo said.

Peacock said it was a prioritized marine spot.

”I’d rather play into the marine use,” she said.

She also asked about the plan’s lack of town staff building, such as for the town’s harbormaster.

“There’s no building at all for town staff,” she said.

The parking lot could be squeezed a bit, the consultant said, and potential buildings could be accommodated.

“It seems like we should have bathrooms there,” Peacock said.

She also asked about climate and storm resiliency. The site slopes up, which decreases concern and risk for parking areas to flood. The floats would be designed for existing wave climate and future wave climate. However, a 500-year storm, the consultant said, would damage the structures.

Councilor Randy Sprague asked about the operation and management costs and if (and how much) potential revenue might offset the costs.

Councilor Earl Brechlin asked about the security of the site and its close location to the international ferry, which has federal Coast Guard regulations it must follow, including a security zone. The consultant didn’t think it was an issue.

At a December 2023 Harbor Committee meeting, both then Harbor Committee Vice Chair Larry Nuesslein and Bar Harbor Harbormaster Christopher Wharff said that the Coast Guard has told them there would be no problem with having the CAT and its required security zone close to the proposed Bar Harbor public marina.

Nuesslein said this is because there would be a fence between the CAT terminal and the marina. The CAT also has its own security plan. He received information from the Coast Guard about the plans on December 6 and emailed other Harbor Committee members with the information.

Wharff said that he also talked to the Coast Guard and said that they aren’t anticipating any issues with having the marina there because of the way the property would be laid out.

There was also some discussion about green space for the town residents. Peacock advocated for green space.

There will be “many, many months” of work before the town can identify particular funding sources, Smith said.

During public comment, Carol Chappell said she was glad to see the plan moving forward, but said her understanding was that the terminal was a marine activities district and that all the parking needs to be water-related.

She did not think satellite parking was a legal or acceptable use.

She also wondered where the details of the plan would be hashed out and if that would be at the Council level or Harbor Committee level or somewhere else. That was not answered.

Approximately a decade ago there had been an advisory group that had discussed the ferry terminal site’s future uses and plans.

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THE SITE

The site itself was built out in 1956 for the Bluenose. In the early 1980s, it was adapted for the Bluenose 2 and the CAT. Service stopped in 2009.

The town acquired the site from the Maine State Ferry Service in 2019 for $3.5 million. Multiple studies were undertaken about the use of the site. The CAT began ferrying passengers and vehicles again from Bar Harbor to Nova Scotia, Canada in 2022.

The high-speed ferry itself is owned by the U.S. Navy and leased to Bay Ferries, which operates the vessel under a contract with the Canadian government that runs through 2026.

In 2025, the CAT had a ridership of 39,700. It linked that drop to lower numbers of Canadians visiting the United States because of strained relations between the two countries since President Donald Trump took office last year. In 2024, there were 49,300.

The ferry’s 10-year-contract with the Canadian government ends this year.

In 2020, the Bar Harbor pier was inspected by GEI, both above and underwater. The pier structures were found to be in a severely deteriorated state. The piles under the pier were particularly weathered, including one that was almost completely deteriorated.

The Bar Harbor Town Council voted to demolish the pier in 2021. In 2022, limited repairs to the north pier occurred to allow continued use by the Cat. In 2022, the town received a grant to create the master plan, which is what GEI is was presenting a draft of at the meeting.

The site is 1.4 miles from Bar Harbor and a shared-use pathway that connects to the existing one along Route 3 has previously been proposed.

In late 2023 when presenting the concept to the Town Council, Harbormaster Chris Wharff said, ““There are big dollar signs there, but if you break it down to smaller pieces, there are approachable projects.”

The Town Council had approved the conceptual design then and been informed that costs were expected to escalate 6% annually. Those had been presented for construction beginning 2025 through 2030.

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LINKS TO LEARN MORE

Coast Guard’s Security Zone Could Put a Hitch in Bar Harbor’s Marina Plans

Carrie Jones

November 19, 2023

Read full story

To watch the meeting.

To read the packet.

2022/2023 Master Plan grant report with Maine.