A Ketchikan port company is suing the old state ferry Malaspina. Alaska Port Innovations has filed a federal complaint against the ferry, alleging that its owner owes over $500,000 in unpaid moorage fees.
The Ward Cove Dock Group purchased the Malaspina from the state in 2022 and it now serves as employee housing and office space in Ward Cove, north of Ketchikan. The company pays to moor the old ferry on property owned by Alaska Port Innovation, which purchased Ketchikan’s former pulp mill at the cove in 2024. The April complaint alleges that the vessel’s moorage fees have not been paid since November 2024, and fees are accruing by over $1,000 each day.
Alaska Port Innovations claims in its complaint that the company is “entitled to arrest the Vessel.” The complaint goes on to say that the company is entitled to “foreclose its lien, and sell the Vessel to satisfy the debt and lien.”
John Binkley is the CEO of Ward Cove Dock Group. In a statement to the U.S. District Court, he claims that the company has paid moorage to another group that once owned the property who “confirmed” that it was still the landlord. Binkley acknowledges a dispute about moorage payments, but says the Malaspina is “critical” to the company’s operations and to “the people who live aboard it.” He states that over 80 of the company’s seasonal workers live aboard the vessel and displacement “would render them immediately homeless and unable to perform their jobs.”
Attorneys representing both Alaska Port Innovations and the Ward Cove Dock Group could not immediately be reached for comment.
There are currently no future hearings scheduled for the case.
Hunter Morrison is a Report for America corps member for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution.
