If you build it, San Diego, will those cruise passengers come?

Even before this week’s fire and power loss aboard the Carnival Splendor off Mexico, the last two years had been rotten for the cruise business in Southern California. As the U.S. economy soured and the Mexican drug war raged, demand for West Coast Mexican cruises has fallen steeply since 2008.

But there is this consolation: San Diego will open a snazzy new cruise ship terminal, with saw-toothed roof and energy-efficient features, in late December.

Of course, that means the passengers aboard the hobbled Carnival Splendor, which was towed into San Diego’s harbor Thursday, will be using the port’s old B Street Cruise Ship Terminal, not the new one. Just their luck.

The new terminal’s timing may seem odd. And one architectural award panel has already denounced the project as a “pimple” on the waterfront. But San Diego port officials say they expect travelers and locals to warm up to the $28-million, 52,000-square-foot, two-story, glass-and-steel building.

The structure, formally known as the Port Pavilion on Broadway Pier, is scheduled to receive its first cruise-ship call on Dec. 22, when Holland America’s 780-foot-long, 1,404-passenger Rotterdam is due in port. A grand opening celebration is scheduled for Dec. 18.

In recent years, San Diego has housed cruise passengers on the nearby B Street pier in a large industrial space. The San Diego Union-Tribune called that facility a “Rube Goldberg-like arrangement that relied on a nearly 40-year-old concrete platform and temporary tents to handle thousands of passengers boarding cruise ships bound for Mexico, Hawaii and the Panama Canal.”

The San Diego Unified Port District laid plans for the new terminal before the current doldrums set in, relying in part of loans from Carnival. The idea was to attract more cruise ships and passengers in years ahead, perhaps wooing some away from Los Angeles.

The new facility, designed to host cruise passengers and special events, means the port will be able to accommodate up to three cruise ships at a time. The terminal can hold up to 2,600 passengers.

But in the last two years, both San Diego and Los Angeles have lost cruise business as Carnival and Royal Caribbean have moved ships away from Southern California, cutting back on the number of 3-, 4- and 7-day cruises down Mexico’s western coast. Port officials, who estimate they will have served 515,000 passengers this year, expect half as many in 2011.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, the San Diego Architectural Foundation singled out the new structure for a Grand Onion award in its annual “Orchids and Onions” competition, saying it was unworthy of its high-visibility spot on the waterfront.

“We actually think it’s a very fine building,” countered John Gilmore, communications manager for the port, adding that the terminal may become “a beacon on the waterfront.” The pavilion was designed by Bermello Ajamil and Partners, Inc., a design and architectural firm with offices in California, Florida and New York.