Can a Brooklyn businessman save the SS United States from sinking? No, say the ship’s old and new owners.
A businessman in Brooklyn has made waves after he said he aims to stop the sinking of the SS United States. The ship's current owners say it's too late.
Stop us if you’ve heard this before: A developer, this time based out of Brooklyn, wants to give the SS United States a new lease on life by turning it into “coworking space” and “incubators.”
There’s one major problem. It’s too little, too late.
“Efforts to push unrealistic proposals in the press are both disappointing and irresponsible and will do nothing more than sully the legacy of America’s Flagship,” said the SS United States Conservancy, the ship’s previous owners, in a statement.
John Quadrozzi Jr. relayed dreams of saving the iconic 990-foot ship to Gothamist this week, just as the ship’s new owners in Okaloosa County, Fla., plan to conduct environmental remediation in Mobile, Ala., before ultimately sinking the ship off the coast of the Florida Panhandle, where it is slated to become an artificial reef.
Quadrozzi, who owns the Gowanus Bay Terminal, told the Gothamist the ship could be reimagined “in increments,” featuring residences and commercial spaces. The businessman also said he had access to a 1,300-foot parking space. Dan McSweeney, cofounder of the SS United States Conservancy, was also quoted in the story as a backer of the proposal, though he is no longer affiliated with the nonprofit that owned the ship from 2011 until the Florida county bought it last month.
McSweeney told The Inquirer he and Quadrozzi don’t think enough resources or time was given to explore the Gowanus Bay Terminal as a redevelopment possibility. The men have assembled the New York Coalition to Save the SS United States. McSweeney said the group is made up of 10 people from New York and elsewhere, who are involved in law, real estate, preservation, nonprofit management, policy, engineering, and architecture. An attorney for the group plans to reach out to Okaloosa County “requesting their cooperation and support” to save the ship, Quadrozzi said in an email.
The concept and the media attention it received have ruffled more than a few feathers among other conservancy members and the ship’s new owners.
For starters, they say, the plan has no sea legs.
Many people, including the conservancy, attempted and failed to redevelop the ship. The conservancy itself published a feasibility study for a mixed-use redevelopment plan last year. Part of the problem with redevelopment was that the ship became incapable of self-propulsion long ago and was later gutted. In some cases, redevelopment would cost more than building a new ship from scratch and would require philanthropic, private, and public dollars.
The conservancy, try as it might, never received interest from New York City or state, despite its various efforts to appeal to lawmakers with the promise of “thousands of jobs.”
The last year has been a particularly busy one for the conservancy due to the fact that their landlord at Pier 82 took them to court and was successful in getting a judge to order the ship’s removal. Desperate to avoid the scrapyard, the conservancy made appeals to various states and piers in hopes a white knight could offer even a temporary berth as stewards tried to secure funding for redevelopment.
In the end and with a deadline looming, Okaloosa County emerged as a buyer with plans to sink the ship and create an artificial reef intended to act as a boon for tourism.
The conservancy has always said, even as it signed the purchase and sale agreement, that sinking the ship was not its first choice, but it beat selling the ship for scrap. Those efforts have made this new idea from Quadrozzi and McSweeney all the more frustrating.
In their statement, the former stewards accused McSweeney of misleading “the public into thinking there is a viable path for redevelopment,” reiterating that there was no other option except to sink the ship. Last month, the Columbia Spectator reported McSweeney pitched using the ship as affordable housing on the Hudson River in Harlem during a local zoning and land use meeting. Okaloosa County penned a purchase agreement days later.
What’s more, Quadrozzi is a known figure to the conservancy, as he is one of the many people the stewards contacted for help, to no avail.
“Mr. Quadrozzi has never offered any financial commitment and, despite several recent attempts by the Conservancy to engage with him by phone or email, no substantive discussions took place,” said the group in a statement.
Okaloosa County officials are equally floored by the idea that a developer, who they say hasn’t reached out, would want to intervene now. They have no intent of selling their newly acquired prized possession. Quadrozzi told Gothamist he was looking to find “a compelling, realistic reason” he could give Okaloosa County officials so they would cancel their plans — his main argument is the ship wouldn’t survive the voyage.
“Okaloosa County fully intends to deploy the SS United States as the World’s Largest Artificial Reef,” said the county in a very diplomatic statement.
Acquiring the ship was no small feat for the county, which spent months coordinating with the ship’s current landlords, the conservancy, and its own bureaucracy to allocate funding and get the deal approved by a federal judge.
“The County Commission voted and approved this effort and we are currently taking the necessary steps to move the vessel from her current location so that she can be prepared for this purpose,” said the county in a statement.
For now, Okaloosa County is moving forward. It aims to move the ship to Mobile, Ala., where the ship will spend about a year getting primed for its eventual journey to its final resting place. Initially set to take place this month, the move was postponed because of inclement weather. No new date has been set.
This story has been updated to include comments from members of the New York Coalition to Save the SS United States.