SS United States must leave its South Philadelphia berth by mid-September, judge rules

The SS United States, a 1,000-foot vessel that still holds the transatlantic speed record it set in 1952, must leave its South Philadelphia berth of more than a decade by Sept. 12, a federal judge said Friday.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody put an end to a years-old rent dispute that culminated in a two-day January bench trial between the SS United States Conservancy, a steward of the ship, and its Pier 82 landlord, Penn Warehousing.

Tensions came to a boil in August 2021, when Penn Warehousing doubled its daily dockage fee for what was once known as the “Queen of the Seas” to $1,700, an increase the conservancy refused to accept, continuing to pay its previous rate, set in 2011. Penn Warehousing terminated the lease in March 2022 with a written notice, then took the conservancy to court, with the conservancy filing a counterclaim.

During the trial, attorneys for both sides tried to bend the vagueness of the original berthing agreement in their favor. Brody, who’d encouraged the parties to settle instead of leaving it up to her, ultimately gave each side a partial victory in her decision.

She took note of two key omissions in the original berthing agreement. There were no provisions for any change in the “lay up dockage fee” or provisions on how either party could end the relationship save for the vessel’s departure. Penn Warehousing’s demand for increased dockage fees with a 14-days notice “finds no support in the Berthing Agreement or contract law,” she wrote, and the conservancy’s failure to pay the new rate did not amount to a breach of the 2011 agreement or entitle its landlord to damages.

Still, Brody wrote that under Pennsylvania contract law, the berthing agreement is terminable at will with reasonable notice, which Penn Warehousing had issued in March 2022.

Susan Gibbs, conservancy president and granddaughter of the ship’s designer, said in a statement that the conservancy “was vindicated in not being compelled to pay a large sum of back rent.” Yet she lamented the ticking clock the conservancy is now under.

“The judge’s decision gives us a very limited window to find a new home for the SS United States and raise the resources necessary to move the ship and keep her safe,” she wrote.

The decision gives the conservancy about 90 days to find a new home. In addition to finding a location, Gibbs said, the conservancy would need funds for insurance, tugs, surveys, and dock preparations for a move.

Penn Warehousing takes no joy in the victory, attorney Craig Mills said in an emailed statement.

“The best hope of everyone involved was that the conservancy could successfully repurpose the ship,” he said. “But after decades of decay and delay, it is time to acknowledge the unavoidable and return Pier 82 to productive commercial service.”

Christened in 1952, the SS United States was once the place to be for A-list celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, royalty, and future presidents. It was a beacon of American engineering, doubling as a military vessel that could carry thousands of troops.

Still, recent decades have not been kind to the ship as it was bounced from Navy control in 1969 as a reserve ship, to various private owners with failed redevelopment ambitions that ranged from creating time-share condos to giving the vessel a second life as a cruise line.

As generations of ambitious redevelopers found their plans to be too expensive or poorly timed, the vessel appeared to be headed for the scrap heap.

The vessel was bought more time to sort out its future when philanthropist H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest — the late former owner of The Inquirer and whose Lenfest Institute now owns the paper — donated $5.8 million in 2010 to save the ship from destruction. The funds allowed the conservancy, which had already been advocating for the ship, to buy it from then-owner Norwegian Cruise Lines. The donation also accounted for 20 months of rent.

Once it had control of the ship, the conservancy similarly struggled to find a white knight. Most recently, the conservancy released plans in November provided by real estate firm RXR Realty and MCR Hotels. The plans call for the ship to include a hotel, a speakeasy, and museum, among other amenities and event spaces.

The conservancy has asked supporters to call on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to step in and help the vessel find a new home. In exchange, they’d benefit from the jobs redevelopment would create, according to the conservancy.

The conservancy has taken its appeal all the way to the White House, making clear that if it were evicted, the ship would likely be destroyed. Still, no one has stepped up.

Attorneys for the conservancy argued that the berthing agreement was a “sweetheart agreement” for Penn Warehousing that brought its tenants no services.

Penn Warehousing sought to “force” the conservancy off the dock by raising rent under various pretenses, contended conservancy attorneys.

But Penn Warehousing attorneys maintained that their tenant started to pose issues in 2020, when the company learned that the ship was causing damage to the bollards it was secured to and the seawall of the pier.

The vessel’s landlord said that under the berthing agreement, the conservancy was responsible for maintaining the bollards and preventing future damage. Except that the conservancy didn’t take steps to remedy what was causing the damage nor did it announce plans to leave, said Penn Warehousing attorneys, forcing the business to raise the rent.

“They were every landlord’s nightmare,” said Mills in court.

One thing both sides could agree on was that the ship was not meant to be in front of the Ikea store forever.

The conservancy said Friday that it was launching an urgent campaign to raise funds for the move.