The cash-strapped South Street Seaport Museum stands to lose up to $1 million in annual revenue if the Mayor’s plan for a subsidized citywide ferry service drives NY Water Taxi from its berth at Pier 16, warns Borough President Gale Brewer.
BY COLIN MIXSON
The South Street Seaport Museum could get sunk financially by the new Citywide Ferry Service, and locals want the city to bail it out.
Downtown community leaders are demanding the city find a way to make up for the revenue that the South Street Seaport Museum will lose if New York Water Taxi makes good on its threat to quit the city in response to the competition it will face from the upcoming Citywide Ferry Service. The water taxi operating from Pier 16 at the Seaport currently pays a substantial rent to the museum, but vowed it leave when the city awarded the contract for the new citywide service to rival Hornblower Cruises and Events, and a representative for Community Board 1 said the city should develop a strategy to make the beloved Seaport institution whole if that happens.
“If New York Water Taxi shuts down operations at Pier 16, we urge that the city to create a plan for the museum to recoup, dollar-for-dollar, the lost revenue,” said Diana Switaj, Director of Planning and Land Use at CB1, at a public hearing on May 19 for an environmental impact statement assessing the new ferry service.
The South Street Seaport Museum currently receives $600,000 in annual revenue paid by NY Water Taxi to use Pier 16, which the museum owns. Making the potential loss of NY Water Taxi even worse, the museum was in talks to renew the lease for a more generous $1 million yearly rent over a 10 year period, when the ferry service announced its intentions to bail on the city — and the deal — according to Borough President Gale Brewer’s office.
NY Water Taxi claims it can’t compete with Hornblower and the heavy subsidizes it will receive from the city to allow the ferry operator to provide trips to numerous destinations throughout the city at $2.75 a ride.
The Economic Development Corporation, a semi-private organization responsible for the new ferry service’s rollout, countered NY Water Taxi’s assertion that it can’t compete with Hornblower, saying the two transit providers offer trips to different destinations, and that there’s no reason both can’t exist in tandem.
“We are surprised that New York Water Taxi is threatening to cease operations, as Citywide Ferry will not directly compete with their routes,” said EDC spokesman Anthony Hogrebe.
Regardless, NY Water Taxi has yet to show any intention of backing off on the vow to pack up and leave, so locals are planning for the worst.
CB1 decided to amend its testimony regarding the new ferry service — which had hitherto focused on issues concerning pollution and quality of life — and include demands that the city subsidize the museum at a recent meeting amongst the board’s Seaport Committee members on May 17.
All present members agreed that something had to be done to support the museum, although who should fund it and how was the subject of some debate.
Long-serving member Paul Hovitz laid the responsibility at Hornblower’s feet, saying it should help support the museum in return for the generous subsidies and revenue it will receive through its contract with the city.
Other members weren’t so sure, and it was ultimately decided to leave the “who” and the “how” up to the city.
In addition to the local community board, the Seaport Museum has found a champion in Borough President Gale Brewer, who fired off a letter to the EDC, which manages the Seaport and the Citywide Ferry Service, saying the Museum would falter in the face of the lost revenue, and asking whether the semi-private organization had any plans in place to support the museum.
The EDC replied with a letter of its own, in which Executive Vice President Seth Myers said that the organization “cares deeply” about the museum and was willing to work with Brewer’s office, the museum, and local stakeholders to develop strategies to keep the museum afloat. The letter did not mention any specific plan. A spokesman for the borough president confirmed that the EDC had been in touch with Brewer’s office to arrange a meeting regarding the museum, although no date has been set as of yet.
