The tall ships are gone, but a two-story party yacht is set to tie up at the Inner Harbor -- an attraction that tourism officials hope will draw visitors to the east side of Baltimore's waterfront and help the rebound of the Harbor Inn Pier 5 Hotel.
The Pintail Lady, a plush, 91-foot yacht with a 145-person capacity, is expected to relocate this weekend from its mooring on the Eastern Shore to its new home alongside the Pier 5 Hotel.
"It helps us ... make a further bridge to the neighborhoods and close that gap between downtown and Fells Point and Little Italy," said Dan Lincoln, vice president of tourism and communications for the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association. "I think this gives us one more jewel to add to our crown."
FOR THE RECORD - A headline that appeared yesterday in some editions of the Maryland section incorrectly stated that a luxury yacht would be docking yesterday at Pier 5 in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The boat is expected to arrive this weekend.
The Sun regrets the errors.
Tourism officials say the $1.5 million boat will serve as a waterfront entrance to the redeveloping Inner Harbor East where two hotels and more than 200,000 square feet of retail and office space are under construction.
The boat, which will be docked along Pier 5's 300-foot promenade, will also be the centerpiece of an ongoing campaign to revive the long-troubled hotel, which has bounced back since 1998, when it was purchased by a partnership controlled by baking mogul John Paterakis Sr.
Hotel occupancy rates have risen to about 80 percent this year -- up from 50 percent two years ago, before it was bought by the Paterakis group, hotel officials said.
Kevin Carnes, director of hotel operations at the Pier 5 Hotel, said Harbor Inn would use the boat to continue those trends and draw additional corporate clients to the 65-room hotel, as well as attract tourists to an upscale nightclub and seafood restaurant there.
"It is going to add a new dimension to the Inner Harbor," said Carnes, who works for Meyer Jabara Hotels based in Danbury, Conn., the management company that leases the hotel from the Paterakis group.
Lincoln said tourism officials are pleased by the decision to dock the boat at Pier 5 because they are trying to change visitors' impressions that the Power Plant, on Pier 4, is the end of Baltimore's waterfront.
That job, he said, is becoming easier with ongoing construction projects in Inner Harbor East, including the 31-story Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel and the 13-story Courtyard by Marriott -- both being developed by Paterakis.
"The whole east side of the harbor is just booming, and it is kind of the snowball effect," Lincoln said. "It is like a second renaissance. You had first renaissance with the Power Plant, and now this."
