SS United States could be headed for Brooklyn
The massive, record-setting S.S. United States, anchored on the Delaware near Ikea, could be destined to become a tourist attraction and hotel on Brooklyn’s waterfront.
The New York Times reports that conservancy that owns the 990-foot-long ocean liner, which still holds the record for the fastest eastbound trip across the Atlantic in 1952 (three days, 10 hours and 40 minutes), is in talks with three developers that would all move the ship to New York.
Says the paper:
Redevelopment is expected to cost $170 million to $300 million, depending on the combination of uses, and “seed capital” of about $15 million will be needed for an initial phase of the project, said [Dan McSweeney, managing director of the SS United States Redevelopment Project.] Putting the ship back into the cruise market could cost as much as $1 billion, which is too expensive to contemplate, he added. …
Mr. McSweeney said that the conservancy — which bought the ship from Norwegian Cruise Line for $3 million in 2011 — also considered locating the ship in Miami, Baltimore, Boston and Philadelphia and other cities but that none matched New York.
The ship could be moved in four to six months. A competing plan to move the ship to Chester is not deemed as economically viable.
The full story has some interesting historic tidbits, if you just can’t get enough.
I know this is exciting news for all you Brooklyphiles out there. It’s a shame that they stored that rusting hulk in our city, and will turn it into a thing of beauty in another. I say “good riddance”.
Like all boats, it will be a hole in the water that you throw money into – thank goodness, it will not be our money.
This is the sort of development that makes so much sense in NYC but almost nowhere else in the US.