Beale Street Landing - a white elephant already ? !

If you drive along Riverside Drive, you’ll see that work has started on Beale Street Lanindg (BSL). But the project is far from finished, and much more tax money is slated to be spent in the future. Meanwhile, Majestic America Line, the company that wanted to use the new boat dock, is in financial trouble, trying to sell their boats, and plans no trips for 2009 or any time in the future.

Looks like BSL could already be a white elephant.

Here's the Flyer article that broke the story and other information on the $29.4M public project.
Click here to read the Flyer article.
Click here to read Majestic America’s announcement.


Links for more information on BSL. Click to see
Overview of project - What, Where, Why, Who? Do we need it? Can we afford it?
Council votes to approve new boat dock
What it will look like and where it will be
An Update on BSL – the details
The 2008 Memphis Capital Improvement Project budget shows the total public cost of Beale Street Landing as $29,421,026 with $7,457,026 of that to come from federal grants. Included in the federal funding is $1M in 2004 Transportation funds under the Surface Transportation Program, $1,280,000 in a 2005 transportation appropriation under Ferry Boat Discretionary Program Awards, and $1,969,393 in a second transportation appropriation under Ferry Boat Discretionary Program Awards.
Could this be the real reason for the landing?