A Brooklyn businessman has several ideas about what to do with the SS United States, which is currently docked in Philadelphia as it prepares for its travel to Mobile to experience the world’s largest artificial reef.
John Quadrozzi Jr., concrete magnate and owner of the Gowanus Bay Terminal in Brooklyn, recently said this Gothamist that he would like to turn the ship into a sustainable ‘floating ecosystem’.
“Coworking space, incubators. Preferably things that are more maritime and environmentally oriented. The ship is only filled with small spaces, which would be ideal for that type of use,” he said.
“It is built up step by step. There are houses. There are commercial spaces. There are industrial spaces.”
Quadrozzi and his backer Dan McSweeney, co-founder of a conservation organization dedicated to the SS United States, who recently presented an idea to turn the ship into a floating ship affordable housing complex on the Hudson River, rush to stop the ship before it disembarks for Mobile.
The departure was previously scheduled to take place on November 14, but was postponed due to weather conditions. Officials have not announced a new date for when the ship will be moved.
Once the date is reset, it will take about two weeks for tugboats to tow the ship to Mobile.
In Mobile, contractors will begin the process of making sure it is safe for ocean life and punching holes in the hull to land it upright at the bottom of the Gulf.
According to the Okaloosa County Commission, this process is expected to take a year, after which the ship will make its final voyage to a location approximately 20 miles south of the Florida Panhandle region in the Destin-Fort Walton Beach area.
But Quadrozzi said he is not confident the ship can reach shore for repairs.
“If you take a ship of this size out into the deep sea and around the Horn of Florida, the chances of it getting there at all are questionable,” he told Gothamist.
Although Quadrozzi is still trying to find a way to keep the ship in the Northeast, Okaloosa County officials say he has not contacted them. Currently, their plan for the SS United States remains unchanged.
“I am not familiar with that gentleman and what he is doing in Brooklyn,” Nick Tomecek, a spokesman for Okaloosa County, told Gothamist.
“I do know that Okaloosa County purchased this vessel for the use of the world’s largest artificial reef.”
Originally designed as a top-secret, convertible troop carrier during the Cold War in 1951, the SS United States has transported presidents, famous actors, heads of state, tourists, members of the armed forces, and immigrants before its retirement in 1969.
Notable passengers included four American presidents (Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy and a young Bill Clinton), Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe and John Wayne.
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