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Study Looks At Rock Harbor’s Economic Value
Work continues on the commercial wharf reconstruction at Rock Harbor. The majority of the work is expected to be done by May or June, with the balance to be finished by the end of the year. RYAN BRAY PHOTO
ORLEANS – How do you quantify the economic value of Rock Harbor? It’s a tall order, but the Cape Cod Commission took its best shot.
The commission in March released a new study looking at what economic benefit the town derives from the harbor, both in terms of its commercial operations and public visitation of the popular waterfront spot.
Select board members and other town officials have talked about trying to get a better understanding of the harbor’s economic value in recent years. In October 2022, town meeting voters authorized spending $15,000 to conduct the study.
Nate Sears, the town’s harbormaster and natural resources manager, said talk around conducting an economic analysis of the harbor actually began with plans to dredge the Nauset Estuary. He said it was believed that a study of the estuary’s economic value would make it easier to get voters on board with paying for the dredge.
“That kind of turned into, ‘Well if we’re going to do that, we should look into Rock Harbor as well, because we have some major infrastructure challenges looking ahead,’” he said.
The study employed a number of methods to gather information and data. Commission staffers conducted in-person surveys with harbor visitors and local commercial fishermen. The commission also contracted with a third-party company, Placer a.i., which collected cell phone data from visitors to better understand visitation habits and patterns in the area (see separate story). An “input-out model” was also used to further gauge the harbor’s economic impact in Orleans.
The study’s findings included the economic value of commercial fishing operations in the harbor. The commission said that commercial and charter boats provide “nearly 40 jobs” and bring in between $1.9 million and $2.5 million to the town annually.
But figuring out how much revenue for the town is directly derived from people who visit the harbor proved harder to pin down. In looking at summer visitation patterns from 2021 to 2023, the commission estimated that $127,000 was brought into the town through people who purchased food, beverages and other items before visiting the harbor. But that figure did not account for how visitors spent money at other places in town, including local restaurants and businesses.
“I’m interested in that,” Orleans Public Works Director Rich Waldo said of the $127,000 estimate. “It’s so hard to figure out how to quantify that. How do you quantify someone who’s going to walk on the beach at sunset and then went to Friends’ Marketplace to get a sandwich?”
Chloe Schaefer, chief planner for the Cape Cod Commission, said the data provided in the study shouldn’t be taken as hard numbers, but rather “best estimates” that provide some insight into how activity at the harbor provides economic benefit to the broader community.
“Without getting every single person who goes to the harbor throughout a year and understanding exactly what they’re doing there, we made a best attempt to [find out] what the economic impact is.”
Other limitations in the study included low participation in surveys among boat captains and other businesses in the vicinity of the harbor. The majority of boat captains surveyed, about 60 percent, declined to speak about their annual revenue and the salaries of their staff, for example.
But despite the limitations in the study, Waldo and Sears said there is plenty of data that the town can work with moving forward. The study comes as the $9 million reconstruction of the harbor’s commercial wharf is near completion, and Sears said the study data can be used to gauge what impacts the project has had on economic performance at the harbor in the years ahead.
“We can use this data as a baseline to look at pre-construction and post-construction and have a better understanding of what we created as a destination and improved upon,” he said.
And while the wharf project was well underway by the time of the study’s release, Waldo and Sears say that much of the study data aligns with what the town hoped to achieve through the project. The study provided an overview of what features survey respondents said could be introduced to improve the harbor area. Boat captains cited the need for new infrastructure, improved launch facilities, improved fuel access and more public amenities for visitors, all of which are central features to the new wharf system.
The new wharf is also expected to meet the desires of harbor visitors, many of whom visit to enjoy the water and the natural scenery the area provides, according to the study.
“A lot of it aligns with what I’ve seen, too,” Waldo said. “I know I’ve had family members who will go and they buy breakfast at a local shop and then they go down to Rock Harbor. They sit and watch the boats go in and out. They’ll watch the sunrise and just kind of start their day down there.”
With the Rock Harbor study completed, is there potential for a similar analysis to be conducted for the town’s other landings? Sears said it’s possible, but that is a decision to be made by the select board.
“Certainly Rock Harbor has a lot of different moving pieces and is a little more complex than a lot of the other town landings,” he said.
Much Of Harbor Project Near Completion
The new commercial wharf will include a new bulkhead, repaved parking lot, space for end-in vessel berthing, a new concrete offloading area and offloading crane and a public viewing area, among other features.
In an update to the select board last week, Waldo said that the majority of the work is expected to be completed by May or June. But he said some other work will need to be paused for the summer and resumed in the fall.
“Right now our focus for Memorial Day is to get the [commercial] fleet back to where it needs to be,” he said April 30.
Waldo said underground debris caused some problems this winter with the installation of pier pilings.
“When we were driving in these sheet piles, the sheet piles were going in very nice and smooth and then boom, you’d hit an obstruction,” he said.
The fall and winter work will include installation of a new drainage system, paving and striping of the parking lot, installation of the new pump-out system and jib crane and completion of the public viewing area. Additional work will also be needed to finish the concrete offloading area and the offloading pier piles, he said.
Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com
The commission in March released a new study looking at what economic benefit the town derives from the harbor, both in terms of its commercial operations and public visitation of the popular waterfront spot.
Select board members and other town officials have talked about trying to get a better understanding of the harbor’s economic value in recent years. In October 2022, town meeting voters authorized spending $15,000 to conduct the study.
Nate Sears, the town’s harbormaster and natural resources manager, said talk around conducting an economic analysis of the harbor actually began with plans to dredge the Nauset Estuary. He said it was believed that a study of the estuary’s economic value would make it easier to get voters on board with paying for the dredge.
“That kind of turned into, ‘Well if we’re going to do that, we should look into Rock Harbor as well, because we have some major infrastructure challenges looking ahead,’” he said.
The study employed a number of methods to gather information and data. Commission staffers conducted in-person surveys with harbor visitors and local commercial fishermen. The commission also contracted with a third-party company, Placer a.i., which collected cell phone data from visitors to better understand visitation habits and patterns in the area (see separate story). An “input-out model” was also used to further gauge the harbor’s economic impact in Orleans.
The study’s findings included the economic value of commercial fishing operations in the harbor. The commission said that commercial and charter boats provide “nearly 40 jobs” and bring in between $1.9 million and $2.5 million to the town annually.
But figuring out how much revenue for the town is directly derived from people who visit the harbor proved harder to pin down. In looking at summer visitation patterns from 2021 to 2023, the commission estimated that $127,000 was brought into the town through people who purchased food, beverages and other items before visiting the harbor. But that figure did not account for how visitors spent money at other places in town, including local restaurants and businesses.
“I’m interested in that,” Orleans Public Works Director Rich Waldo said of the $127,000 estimate. “It’s so hard to figure out how to quantify that. How do you quantify someone who’s going to walk on the beach at sunset and then went to Friends’ Marketplace to get a sandwich?”
Chloe Schaefer, chief planner for the Cape Cod Commission, said the data provided in the study shouldn’t be taken as hard numbers, but rather “best estimates” that provide some insight into how activity at the harbor provides economic benefit to the broader community.
“Without getting every single person who goes to the harbor throughout a year and understanding exactly what they’re doing there, we made a best attempt to [find out] what the economic impact is.”
Other limitations in the study included low participation in surveys among boat captains and other businesses in the vicinity of the harbor. The majority of boat captains surveyed, about 60 percent, declined to speak about their annual revenue and the salaries of their staff, for example.
But despite the limitations in the study, Waldo and Sears said there is plenty of data that the town can work with moving forward. The study comes as the $9 million reconstruction of the harbor’s commercial wharf is near completion, and Sears said the study data can be used to gauge what impacts the project has had on economic performance at the harbor in the years ahead.
“We can use this data as a baseline to look at pre-construction and post-construction and have a better understanding of what we created as a destination and improved upon,” he said.
And while the wharf project was well underway by the time of the study’s release, Waldo and Sears say that much of the study data aligns with what the town hoped to achieve through the project. The study provided an overview of what features survey respondents said could be introduced to improve the harbor area. Boat captains cited the need for new infrastructure, improved launch facilities, improved fuel access and more public amenities for visitors, all of which are central features to the new wharf system.
The new wharf is also expected to meet the desires of harbor visitors, many of whom visit to enjoy the water and the natural scenery the area provides, according to the study.
“A lot of it aligns with what I’ve seen, too,” Waldo said. “I know I’ve had family members who will go and they buy breakfast at a local shop and then they go down to Rock Harbor. They sit and watch the boats go in and out. They’ll watch the sunrise and just kind of start their day down there.”
With the Rock Harbor study completed, is there potential for a similar analysis to be conducted for the town’s other landings? Sears said it’s possible, but that is a decision to be made by the select board.
“Certainly Rock Harbor has a lot of different moving pieces and is a little more complex than a lot of the other town landings,” he said.
Much Of Harbor Project Near Completion
The new commercial wharf will include a new bulkhead, repaved parking lot, space for end-in vessel berthing, a new concrete offloading area and offloading crane and a public viewing area, among other features.
In an update to the select board last week, Waldo said that the majority of the work is expected to be completed by May or June. But he said some other work will need to be paused for the summer and resumed in the fall.
“Right now our focus for Memorial Day is to get the [commercial] fleet back to where it needs to be,” he said April 30.
Waldo said underground debris caused some problems this winter with the installation of pier pilings.
“When we were driving in these sheet piles, the sheet piles were going in very nice and smooth and then boom, you’d hit an obstruction,” he said.
The fall and winter work will include installation of a new drainage system, paving and striping of the parking lot, installation of the new pump-out system and jib crane and completion of the public viewing area. Additional work will also be needed to finish the concrete offloading area and the offloading pier piles, he said.
Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com
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