Hudson Common Council Approves New Lease for Afton/Hudson Cruise Lines

The Hudson Common Council on Monday unanimously approved a new dock lease agreement to Gordy Jarvis of Afton/Hudson Cruise Line.

The five-year fee schedule and changes in the March 15 draft of the Courtesy Dock Lease Agreement means the lease will increase from $1,100 a year to $5,000 annually for the first five years—after which the last five years of the leasing fee will be reviewed with an option to increase.

The lease was also extended from three years to 10 years, and allows for a third excursion boat at the Courtesy docks, contingent upon the approval of a dock reconfiguration application submitted last week to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Two of the boats will stay in Hudson year around and will be bubbled, Jarvis said. If the Army Corps doesn’t approve the dock reconfiguration plans, the contract can be amended at a later date.

Details of how the Courtesy Dock Lease fee will be spent by the city—including potential improvements to parking in the area—will be brought before the Finance Committee for discussion at a later date.

“We’re entering into the agreement with the understanding that everything will move along the way it should move along and gets approved accordingly,” Jarvis told the Council. “Meanwhile we still have to have a lease so we can operate the way it is at the present time. We know there will be a substantial increase even though we wouldn’t have the additional boat there and that’s just an expense we have to take upon ourselves. The lease is the lease and we just keep moving forward.”

Currently about 50 percent of the passenger flow to the two existing excursion boats comes in via motor coach, Jarvis said. If approved by the Army Corps, the third boat is a smaller, 25-passenger vessel, so the parking impact by adding a boat would be minimal.