Famed ocean liner SS United States eyed as Hudson River attraction

The SS United States, seen here on Jan 21, 2014 remains docked in Philadelphia for now. Photo Credit: Getty Images/Getty Images

Famed ocean liner SS United States could become a permanently docked mixed-use attraction along the Hudson River in Manhattan.

“This is an extraordinarily promising development,” said Susan Gibbs, executive director of the SS United States Conservancy, which acquired the vessel in 2011.

Long Island-based development firm RXR Realty has partnered with the nonprofit and will work on an adaptive reuse plan and suitable site for the 990-foot ship that set trans-Atlantic speed records after its launch in 1952, but which has been deteriorating at a pier in Philadelphia since 1996.

Neither party would reveal specific financial terms of the deal or how long the agreement will be in effect. “Over the next several months, RXR Realty will be working to determine the viability of the SS United States’ redevelopment and will explore a range of potential locations for the historic vessel,” Gibbs wrote to the conservancy’s members on Dec. 10.

LI development firm RXR Realty has agreed to partner with the nonprofit owner of the SS United States to come up with a plan to reuse the mothballed vessel. Photo Credit: Newsday File/Chris Ware

“In connection with its work, RXR will be paying a substantial portion of the ship’s carrying costs and making other investments during this option period,” added Gibbs, granddaughter of the ship’s designer, the late William Francis Gibbs. The conservancy pays $60,000 a month for dockage fees and other costs to keep the United States afloat.

RXR executive Vice President Seth Pinsky said Wednesday that “the SS United States is an exemplar of America’s proud maritime history. For this reason, we are very excited about the possibility of participating in its rehabilitation.”

Pinsky cautioned that “there is clearly much more work to be done before we are able to say for certain whether this possibility can become a reality and, if so, what form this reality will take.”

In the joint statement issued Dec. 10, RXR noted “our history of repurposing and updating some of this country’s most historic structures.” These include the Helmsley Building, 75 Rockefeller Plaza and Pier 17 near South Street Seaport in Manhattan.

Published reports have noted that the company has been considering incorporating a mothballed ocean liner into its Pier 57 development on the Hudson River in Chelsea for at least three years.

Gibbs has said previously that her organization’s first choice for a home port would be New York, from where the ship originally sailed during its years of trans-Atlantic service. The conservancy has envisioned the ship serving as a multiuse facility including a museum, events space and a hotel. The organization has acquired thousands of objects originally on the ship or associated with it for the museum.