City reportedly selects five-borough ferry provider

The city has settled on an operator to steer its $55 million five-borough ferry service, according to Crain’s New York.

While no formal announcement has been made, the outlet reported on Friday, February 19 that, after a drawn-out battle between operators to run the coming routes, de Blasio and his administration have chosen Hornblower Cruises & Events.

Hornblower – founded in 1980 in San Francisco, California – boasts over 170 vessels with capacities from 20 to 2,200 across the country, according to its website.

Though, according to the New York City Economic Development Corporation (the agency behind the venture), nothing has been finalized as of yet.

“NYCEDC is currently in negotiations around details of the citywide ferry service and I can’t comment further until negotiations are concluded,” said NYCEDC Spokesperson Ian Fried.

The waterway expansion – first announced in February of 2015 – will take place in two phases, beginning with the opening of the South Brooklyn, Astoria and Rockaway routes in 2017. Soundview and Lower East Side routes are slated to follow in 2018.

The South Brooklyn route will have landings at Bay Ridge (via the 69th Street Pier), the Brooklyn Army Terminal, Red Hook, Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 6 near Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 1 in DUMBO and Wall Street’s Pier 11.

Total travel time from first stop to last will be just 43 minutes, and the trip will cost the same as a subway ride.

This story has been updated to include a comment from the NYCEDC.