D.C. neighborhood the Wharf welcomes new American Constitution cruise ship
The District’s newest neighborhood has counted on visitors arriving by car, foot, bus and rail to take in the $2.5 billion luxury development in the city’s smallest quadrant.
More than six months after its opening, they’re also arriving by cruise ship.
For years, the only cruises associated with the waterfront were of the dinner variety, but last month marked the debut of the ship American Constitution using the Wharf as a port of call. The D.C. destination on the ship’s 11-day American Revolution-themed cruise marks an evolution for a young neighborhood filled with gleaming high-rise housing and fine dining on the Southwest Waterfront.
Monty Hoffman, founder of PN Hoffman, a developer of the Wharf, wouldn’t discuss the financial terms that brought the American Constitution to the waterfront, but he said no dredging was required to make the Washington Channel suitable for the 267-foot-long ship, which dwarfs the Potomac’s water taxis.
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Hoffman said he wants to focus on improvements to the waterfront as the young neighborhood continues to mature.
“What we want to do is connect all the water ports together,” he said of possible connections to Georgetown, National Harbor and Alexandria. “We want to utilize our waterway.”
While he doesn’t envision a Carnival-esque ship docking at the Wharf, the more modest vessel that takes cruisegoers on a circuit around the Cheseapeake Bay works. A refurbished Spanish galleon stopped by in 2016, a year before the new neighborhood opened.
“It fits in nicely,” Hoffman said. “It’s not going to be a regular port of call for tourism coming in. I don’t see that. I do see this as an event from time to time that adds excitement.”
On an unseasonably warm evening this week, the American Constitution sailed into a waterfront that’s far from a sleepy New England harbor or idyllic Caribbean beach. Those sitting on the ship’s upper decks at rush hour had a view of southbound cars backed up on the 14th Street Bridge.
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On board, passengers can tackle a puzzle in one of the lounges or read a paperback from a small library. Those seeking snacks ahead of a lobster-roll dinner can nosh on Fig Newtons or granola bars. The ship has WiFi and complimentary evening cocktail hours.
For landlubbers, the Mall and monuments are a 15-minute walk or short cab ride under Interstate 395. The amenities of the Wharf are down the dock.
The ship’s captain, Greg Scheiferstein, grew up in Cleveland with “boats behind the house,” he said, and served in the Coast Guard before helming the 175-passenger cruise ship. It’s a big boat in what, before a recent construction boom, seemed like a small harbor.
“You have to be careful, but the ship is very maneuverable,” Scheiferstein said.
For some in Southwest’s business community, the American Constitution brings more than customers to restaurants and shops a few times a year. The ship’s very presence means the Wharf has arrived.
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“It’s turning a corner, and everyone recognizes it,” said Steve Moore, executive director of the Southwest Business Improvement District.
That vision also appealed to Charles Robertson, chief executive of Connecticut-based American Cruise Lines, which operates the American Constitution. The cruise was designed mostly for a senior crowd that draws heavily from the West Coast.
It includes stops at Yorktown, Va. — where Gen. George Washington dealt a death blow to British hopes of retaining the North American colonies in 1781 — and Mount Vernon, as well as Annapolis, Baltimore and destinations on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Tickets start at $4,700, depending on the time of year.
The cruise used to include a stop in Alexandria, but with improvements along the waterfront, Robertson said the District makes more sense.
“People want to go there,” he said.
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The ship hasn’t left an impression on everyone. Betty-Ann Bryce, a 47-year-old Agriculture Department employee who lives on the Wharf, said she hadn’t noticed it.
Bryce, who was born in Jamaica, headed for the Southwest Waterfront’s views when she moved to the District three years ago, then simply moved across the street when the Wharf opened.
For her, an amenity like a cruise ship is just a bonus.
“I was already there,” she said.
At smaller ports of call outside the District, the immediate economic impact of cruisegoers isn’t always the point.
Kay MacIntosh, economic development coordinator for Chestertown, Md., said new visitors let the town on the Eastern Shore show off its artists’ studios and historic district, which might prompt a return trip in the future.
“There were quite a few comments along the lines of ‘we wish we had more time here,’ and even some questions about what it’s like to retire in Chestertown,” MacIntosh wrote in an email. “I’ll take that, in hopes that the guests will, indeed, return to spend a weekend or look at real estate.”
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Kevin Brooks of the Eastport Oyster Boys, a group who describe themselves as “Chesapeake Bay troubadours,” regularly performs on the American Constitution. He sees the cruises not only as a way to make money — such performances account for 25 percent of his business — but as an opportunity to introduce people to the ecosystem of the Chesapeake Bay.
“These folks are coming from all over the country, all over the world,” he said. “They’re seeing the Chesapeake for the first time. It’s great.”
In a part of the District once considered a test case in poor urban planning, the Wharf is being reimagined. Again.
“Remember, now, people have been living on the water for a long time,” Moore said, citing the waterfront’s 550 boat slips, 126-year-old yacht club and two-century-old fish market. “It’s not like the water was just discovered.”
Read more:
What to expect at the Wharf, D.C.’s newest dining and entertainment hub
You can now go yachting at the Wharf — if you can afford it
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