Clarise Larson

A large gravel lot in the heart of downtown Juneau’s tourism corridor has sat empty for years. But that might soon change. 

On Tuesday, the city’s planning commission will consider whether to approve a conditional use permit for the construction of a two-story retail and entertainment building called “Alaska Fly & Dive.”

According to the permit application, the project will bring tourists coming off cruise ships into an immersive theater experience of Alaska’s natural wonders, like local glaciers and underwater adventures. The development would include three large interactive theaters/rides, a retail store and some office space. 

The project, estimated to cost at least $60 million with hopes of opening in 2027, would turn into a civic and educational venue in the tourism off-season. 

“I know it’s private property. They should be allowed to develop as they do, but I just don’t know that it will benefit Juneau, as I know it, or the Juneau that is here after the tourists leave,” former Juneau Assembly member Loren Jones said in an interview.  

Back in 2019, the Juneau Assembly negotiated a land swap with property owner Archipelago Properties LLC, a subsidiary of Morris Communications based in Georgia and the former owner of the Juneau Empire newspaper. The negotiation was so that the city could develop bus staging and additional pedestrian space along the seawalk. Plans for Morris Communications to develop something on their property have been discussed for at least close to a decade. 

Jones voted against the land trade deal. He was skeptical about how any development there would benefit the community as a whole. 

At the time of the deal, a representative for the property said they wanted to develop the lot into retail shops and restaurants starting in 2020. That never happened. 

Instead, the nearly 1-acre property adjacent to the downtown library and parking garage — along South Franklin Street and under the watchful eyes of the Elizabeth Peratrovich mural — has remained largely empty. That’s despite the property’s extreme proximity to where 1.7 million cruise ship tourists walk off ships and into downtown Juneau each summer.

Jones said he’s not totally against the current “Alaska Fly & Dive” project — but needs more convincing that it will actually benefit Juneau.

“I don’t see anything in there that tells me that somebody in the middle of winter is going to leave their home in the valley and go,” he said. “I can’t imagine any of us going down in the middle of winter to take a simulated boat ride or a simulated submarine ride.”

Still, the new project has received letters of support from the Juneau Economic Development Council, Travel Juneau, the Downtown Business Association and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. According to its application with the city, the development is in collaboration with Melvern Entertainment, a company that develops theater attractions for Disney, Universal Studios and Six Flags.

The proposed theaters include a 60-person 4D theater, a 72-person flying theater, and three 20-person ocean simulator theaters. The flying theater and ocean simulator theater would also be rides, taking guests via immersive films to see local glaciers and landscapes, and on underwater adventures.

Liz Perry with Travel Juneau said in an interview that she’s excited to see the empty lot turn into something new. 

“This would be a terrific year-round addition to our offerings for both visitors and residents — it will create something that hasn’t been in that lot,” she said. 

And before you ask – no, they’re not planning to build any housing there. At least not in this application. Alix Pierce is Juneau’s Visitor Industry Director. In an interview, she said she thinks the project could help with managing the number of tourists that come into town each day in the summer. 

“I think having something downtown on the waterfront that’s indoors and helps manage congestion by pulling people into an activity, is a positive thing,” she said. 

The applicant for the permit is Reuben Willis, a local insurance Agent for State Farm. He declined an interview with KTOO to speak about the project before the meeting on Tuesday. In the application, it states that he signed a sales agreement for the lot, which is in a “due diligence period.” Morris Communications has also not responded to multiple requests for comment. 

The Juneau planning commission will decide whether to approve a conditional use permit for the project’s construction, along with two other variance requests related to the project, on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at City Hall. 

In this newscast:

• After multiple weeks of being closed, Juneau’s recycling center is back up and running at a limited capacity.
• U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan bristled at the suggestion that he only defends the Trump administration. In his annual address to the Alaska Legislature Wednesday he also slammed national Democrats as bent on ruining Alaska.
• Immigration enforcement agents swarmed a Soldotna home Tuesday morning and took a family of four, including a kindergartner, into custody.
• A 17th candidate has announced she’s running for governor.
• If you’ve noticed you’re paying more for a cup of coffee these days, you’re not alone. Bean prices have been extremely volatile in recent years. Then, came President Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariffs, which the White House removed on some agricultural products, including coffee, in November.

After multiple weeks of closure, Juneau’s recycling center is back up and running at limited capacity. 

The partial reopening comes after the center has been closed on and off since late December, after Juneau was hit with back-to-back record-breaking snowstorms, which inundated it with a backlog of materials to process. 

Denise Koch, the city’s director of Engineering and Public Works, says the center will begin by accepting only cardboard and mixed paper, and only for this Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 pm. Other recyclables like plastic and glass are still on hold.

“We know that recycling is an important service for people, and we know it’s been really inconvenient for people to hang on to their recycling,” she said. 

The city contracts with Waste Management to operate its recycling program in Lemon Creek. Waste Management is the private company that runs Juneau’s only landfill, which is estimated to run out of space in the next decade.

Since late January, the city has been asking residents to hold onto their recyclable material while it fixed multiple issues with the recycling baler, which is the most critical piece of equipment for the center to operate. The baler is the machine that compresses the recyclables into blocks, which are then shipped by barge to recycling facilities in Seattle that repurpose the materials.

Koch said while the baler has since been fixed, the city is opening the center up at a limited capacity so that the machine does not get overloaded. She said the center’s staff will then decide further openings depending on how the baler performs this weekend. 

“We are, of course, hoping to be able to do that as soon as possible,” she said. “We are planning to make another announcement on Monday, after we see how things go on Friday and Saturday, and how quickly we’re able to move through material.”

More information and updates can be found on the city’s RecycleWorks webpage.

Nearly everyone who testified at a public hearing Tuesday afternoon at the state capitol was in favor of a Juneau representative’s bill that seeks to ban law enforcement officers from wearing face masks on duty in Alaska.

But one person who spoke against the bill happened to be the chief of police for Alaska’s largest city.

Juneau Democrat  Sara Hannan’s House Bill 250 would ban anyone acting as a law enforcement officer in Alaska from wearing a mask while on duty — including federal, state and local agents — with some exemptions like medical masks, transparent safety shields, cold-weather masks or masks worn by undercover officers. 

Hannan promotes it as being “pro-law enforcement.” She prefiled the bill in January, following public outrage after a masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a Minnesota woman on camera. A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officer killed another man in Minneapolis just weeks later. 

At the bill’s second hearing in the House State Affairs Committee on Tuesday afternoon, the bill received support from eight of the nine public testifiers. That’s after a chilly initial reception from a couple of legislators the week before. 

Bridget Smith of Juneau said while she respects law enforcement, she doesn’t respect anyone who hides their identity.  

“A peace officer wearing a mask to conceal his face would immediately lead me to question that person’s motives and distrust whether that officer was really there to protect and serve me, or whether they wish to be unaccountable for their behavior,” she said. 

As the bill is currently written, an officer who violates the ban would be charged with a Class B misdemeanor per violation, which is punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $2,000 fine. Some testifiers ask for the charges to be harsher.

Laura Lucas, also from Juneau, said she supported the bill because she believes it could prevent what’s currently happening in Minnesota, where federal immigration officers have ramped up deportations amid widespread public protests, from happening in Alaska in the future. Other states across the U.S. have sought to impose similar bans in recent months. 

“Within the past year, we’ve seen changes in this country that we’ve never imagined would happen before,” she said. “I see this legislation as potentially proactive for an issue that might arise in Alaska.”

The main dissent against the bill came from Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case. He said while he opposes police officers wearing masks to conceal their identity, he argued the bill is trying to address a problem that doesn’t exist in Alaska.

“Masking is not a practice in Alaska, and enforcing this bill would be impractical, giving it numerous exemptions,” he said. “It attempts to solve a nonexistent issue, while inserting local law enforcement into a debate about federal immigration enforcement, something outside our role and responsibility.”

He said the Anchorage Police Department already has other accountability measures in place, like requiring uniformed officers to wear their badges and identify themselves upon request.

“Despite real risks of harassment and violence, officers have continued to serve openly 

with visible name tags and badges,” he said. “That visibility is part of our responsibility to protect and serve our communities.”

While Case was the only one who verbally testified against the bill, the committee received written testimony as well — that included a couple of comments against, while most were in favor. 

Hannan’s bill is slated to be heard again by the House State Affairs Committee and has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee. It’s unclear if it will have enough support to advance in the Legislature.

The City of Hoonah has a new chief of police to replace the last chief who was fired while trying to resign last spring. 

James Beck of Oklahoma began his role as Hoonah’s new chief of police and director of public safety in January. Hoonah, a community of less than a thousand people, is located on the northeastern side of Chichagof Island, west of Juneau. 

Beck has served in multiple law enforcement roles for more than two decades, holding positions including tribal police officer, tribal chief of police and sheriff at different agencies in the Lower 48. 

In an interview, Beck said he took the job because he was looking for a change and was drawn to Hoonah’s Indigenous culture. Beck is an enrolled tribal member of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. He said his goal is to build trust between the community and the police department. 

“If you’re always truthful, you’re going to remember what you told somebody,” he said. “If you go to trying to tell fibs and little white lies and just being dishonest, it’s going to come back on you eventually, because you’re going to spin a web of lies, and it always collapses.”

Beck’s hiring comes after Hoonah’s former chief, Carlos Frias, alleged he was fired from his role after two years because he began investigating domestic violence and sexual assault complaints made against some city leaders. However, city leaders rebuffed his claims, saying he was fired for a series of violations, including excessive use of force. Frias has since moved away from Hoonah and is now a police officer in Tucson, Arizona.

Beck said one of his goals as chief is to increase transparency and accountability. 

On Thursday, the City of Hoonah is hosting a community meeting at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall for residents to ask questions or make suggestions to him about the police department. Community members can participate in person or online. 

“I think these community meetings is for me to put myself in front of the community so that I could increase that transparency, because I do believe in transparency and law enforcement,” he said. 

Beck said he would also like to increase staffing levels at the four-person department and upgrade the station.

Bill Miller, Hoonah’s mayor, said Beck has been a great addition to the community so far. 

“His community involvement is really good. He’s been attending all of our meetings because he’s wanting to know the community,” he said. “He fits well for it. He’s got a really good attitude, very knowledgeable.”

Benjamin Botts, formerly with the Ketchikan Police Department, served as interim chief after Frias was fired. According to the city’s website, Botts now serves as a multi-service officer for the department alongside two other officers.

State transportation officials will hold a virtual public forum on Wednesday evening on proposed safety improvements at one of Juneau’s most dangerous intersections.

The intersection at Yandukin Drive and Egan Drive is near the Fred Meyer grocery store and has long been one of Juneau’s most accident-prone areas. Dozens of crashes, some deadly, have occurred there over the years. 

Sonny Mauricio, a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Transportation, said the state is hosting the meeting to gather public feedback and share more information about a proposed plan to improve safety at the intersection. 

“This intersection is historically one of Juneau’s most dangerous, ranking as the third highest for injury crashes in Juneau,” he said. “The primary issue is the high-risk left turn going towards Fred Meyer.”

The proposed improvements would partially signalize the intersection with a traffic light and add a pedestrian crossing, which Mauricio said will help improve safety, circulation and connectivity. 

Juneau residents have been vocal about the need for safety changes for at least two decades. In 2023, the Juneau Assembly passed a resolution asking the state to make “immediate and substantial improvements” at the intersection following a fatal crash.

Since then, the state has made small changes like extending the medians there, painting clearer markings and introducing a seasonal speed limit reduction. 

According to Mauricio, the state hopes to secure a contractor and begin construction for the more substantial improvements later this year. 

“We’re making the intersection safer for everyone, including drivers, and there’ll be more features for pedestrians and cyclists as well, with crosswalks and things like that,” he said. “It’s a major improvement for that intersection.”

The virtual open house meeting is on Wednesday evening at 5:30 p.m. More information about the proposed project and the meeting link can be found on the Department of Transportation’s website.