The City of Glen Cove has begun discussions with an operator to run a commuter ferry service from Garvies Point to Manhattan, Mayor Pam Panzenbeck said on Friday, July 21.
Panzenbeck said the city hopes to run the ferry service by the fall.
“We are in discussions with that particular person,” she said.
In 2003, the City of Glen Cove was approved for a $16.6 million grant to construct a high-speed ferry system from Glen Cove’s Garvies Point to Manhattan’s financial district.
In 2015, Glen Cove built the ferry terminal using the grant money and in 2017, the city launched a service that ended after eight weeks.
Panzenbeck said the MTA ran the ferry for eight weeks in 2017 during the “Summer of Hell,” during which “major track work” was being completed at the train station. She said railroad tickets were used for ferry entry during the eight-week operation.
In 2020, the city planned to launch the service again, but it was canceled due to COVID-19.
Discussions of the ferry project foundered last year when Panzenbeck tabled a resolution that, if approved, would have begun a two-month ferry pilot program in the fall.
Panzenbeck said she tabled the vote because the city hadn’t received a commitment letter from RXR, the owner of the 27 acres of land in Garvies Point, that they would provide some of the funding it had previously committed to subsidizing.
Joe Graziose, executive vice president of residential development and construction at RXR, said the company was not required to provide funds until after the city had sustained losses from the program.
Panzenbeck said the city is now speaking with a potential operator, who is interested in providing the service without the subsidy from RXR. She said discussions are “in the very beginning stages” and that if it pans out, the ferry service would begin this fall.
She said the ferry would run twice a day, at 2:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., and would go to 34th Street and Wall Street.
Panzenbeck said the service would not cost the city money and that riders would pay an “equitable price” to fund the ferry operation.
“It’s not going to cost the city anything,” she said.
Panzenbeck said city officials will be meeting with the potential operator to discuss the matter further in the future.
