New SS United States owners in Florida to pay $100,000 penalty as ship lingers in Philly
The ships new owners and their South Philly landlords are working out a new lease that would extend through January as the vessel undergoes additional U.S. Coast Guard scrutiny.
Another deadline arrives Thursday and the SS United States remains at its South Philadelphia berth until a new timeline is set for its slated cleanup in Alabama. The delay, however, comes with a late fee of $100,000 for the ship’s new owners in Okaloosa County, Fla., who hope to be able eventually to sink the boat and turn it into an artificial reef.
In the grand scheme of things, $100,000 is but a drop in the bucket of the amount past owners have spent on the ship, which exceeds $40 million since it was brought to Philly in 1996.
The county’s plans are “still on budget,” Okaloosa spokesperson Nick Tomecek said.
Despite the penalty, the relationship between Okaloosa County and the ship’s Pier 82 landlord, Penn Warehousing, appears to be nowhere near as strained as that of pier operators and the ship’s past owners, the SS United States Conservancy.
Only a few months ago, the attorneys for Penn Warehousing were asking a federal judge to force the ship’s stewards to devise a departure plan following a drawn-out rent dispute — even if that meant the vessel be scrapped. At the heart of Penn Warehousing’s complaint was a daily dockage fee set in 2011 in a berthing agreement that was purposely loose because both parties entered it with no real sense of when the ship would find a new home. Neither party expected the former ocean liner to remain rusting in South Philly more than a decade later, paying the same $850 in daily rent.
But Okaloosa has accepted and paid daily rent of $3,400 since Oct. 1.
Penn Warehousing attorney Craig Mills described Okaloosa County as a “terrific” tenant and proactive, noting the county asked for an invoice of the penalty weeks before it was due, knowing the ship wouldn’t be out in time.
“They paid to put extra security on the pier after we had that incident with the knuckleheads climbing on board,” added Mills, referring to a minor break-in in October.
Okaloosa County allocated $10 million for the purchase, cleaning, and transport of the ship, budgeting rent in their expenses.
Mills said both parties are working to extend the berthing agreement through January as Okaloosa continues to work with the local, state, and federal agencies involved in the move. Still, there is no new move date for the vessel.
The ship was slated to move in mid-November but was delayed due to logistical and weather hiccups. The U.S. Coast Guard issued an order that calls for additional testing on the ship, which is incapable of self-propulsion and would require tugboats to get it out of Philadelphia, said public affairs specialist Olinda Romero.
“These [tests] are to make sure that it is seaworthy,” Romero said. “So in order to be seaworthy, it would have to be able to move without any issues.”
Romero described the order and testing as “very routine.” She said they give the Coast Guard added “operational control” on issues regarding safety, security, and environmental risks.
For its part, Okaloosa County is confident the ship will pass muster; it’s just a matter of when. Still, the county did push back on recent headlines that suggested there was a “new” concern the SS United States would not be able to clear the Walt Whitman Bridge.
“The bridge has always been there,” Tomecek said. “We’ve always factored in the bridge at the move, which is why we plan to move the vessel at low tide. What I’ll say is that vessel made it there perfectly fine in 1996 and it’s going to make it out of Philadelphia perfectly fine.”