Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32DECEMBER 2016 • FOGHORN 25 BUSINESSMATTERS location plus reporting of on-time and late arrivals. • Social media feeds will be fully inte- grated into all management systems. Community partnerships are being formed and customer histories will be used for route optimization. • A new homeport is being built in the former Brooklyn Navy Yard to service all the vessels. • Many private developers are clamoring to connect their real estate to this system or create new ferry routes. One of the major challenges in such a start-up is the social media strategy. Building transparency to show all vessel locations and arrival times has huge benefits, but how do operators handle Facebook or Twitter publicizing all the trials and tribulations that come with moving 4.5M passengers a year? Hornblower’s VP of Development, Cameron Clark, is the most inno- vative, hard-working and can-do executive in our industry. He cata- pulted Hornblower NYC dining and excursion boats to become jugger- nauts in a short time, designing hybrid vessels and implementing three ISO systems across the company. Now he is assembling a first-class leadership team and integrated systems for this world- class project. Keep an eye on Cameron in the future. Typically, new ferry operations won’t pencil out financially unless there is a generous subsidy involved. If developers build near a ferry, annual rent on average, rises $2 per square foot, which is a huge multiplier in value with today’s low cap rates. Because of this, developers will eagerly write those subsidy checks. The massive migration back to our country’s urban cores will create demand and financial support for ferries on our rivers and harbors. Another example is that recently in DC two giant real estate developers merged and spun off all properties except the 90+ that were located within a half mile of a Metro stop. This new density and the prototype of the NYC CFS will revitalize our ferry industries across our country. My enthusiasm and wrong pre- dictions about casino boats remind me of the Lincoln Steffens quote from his visit to the nascent Soviet Union in 1919: “I have seen the future and it works.” Observing how my predictions unfolded in an unpredictable manner over the years, I am less confident in my fortune telling abilities. Yet I have never seen, in our industry, such an im- pressive start-up as Hornblower’s CFS: I believe it will transform NYC and create huge opportunities across the board. Instead of guessing at the future, let us look to build on Hornblower’s example, and open the aperture to rev- olutionize the future of your ports. n WE LIVE AND BREATHE pAssENgER VEssELs, THAT’s THE KEY TO OUR sUCCEss Anders Rundberg, CEO of Carus We care about your customers Carus offers innovative solutions for the global passenger vessel industry, giving your customers a better experience before, during and after their journey. The Carus solution incorporates ticketing, reservations, check-in, port automation, on-board and relationship management. www.carus.com About the Author Bob Shaw is a veteran industry executive, having led over 100 vessels responsible for over 10 million passengers a year. He can be reached at shawrw@ gmail.com.