The John F. Kennedy shuttled commuters between Manhattan and Staten Island from 1965 till 2021. Might it subsequent be New York’s hottest membership?
NEW YORK — “Saturday Night time Stay” comics Colin Jost and Pete Davidson have bought a decommissioned Staten Island Ferry boat for $280,100 with plans to show it into New York’s hottest membership.
Jost and Davidson teamed up with comedy membership proprietor Paul Italia on Wednesday’s successful bid for the John F. Kennedy, a 277-foot (84-meter) vessel that shuttled commuters between the New York Metropolis boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island from 1965 till it was taken out of service final August.
“The Staten Island Ferry is certainly one thing iconic,” Italia, an actual property investor and co-owner of the restaurant and comedy membership The Stand, mentioned Friday. “We wished to determine a means to put it aside and to do one thing particular with it.”
Italia mentioned remodeling the two,109-ton ferry into an leisure venue will price hundreds of thousands of {dollars} and will not occur anytime quickly.
“It’s actually early phases right here,” he mentioned. “You’ve an incredible concept and also you’re engaged on executing it and step one is the acquisition of the boat, and I feel that that’s the story proper now. We have been profitable in buying the boat and ensuring it didn’t go into the scrapyard just like the final two.”
Messages in search of remark have been despatched to representatives of Jost and Davidson, who each grew up on Staten Island and sometimes joke about their residence borough and its best-known mode of transport.
Named after the thirty fifth U.S. president, the John F. Kennedy was the oldest ferry within the fleet when it was decommissioned final summer season.
The brand new house owners have 10 enterprise days to safe a spot to dock the vessel and tow it there. “We’re engaged on that,” Italia mentioned.
The boat was auctioned by New York Metropolis’s Division of Citywide Administrative Providers, and different metropolis departments should log out on working it as a floating nightspot.
It might assist that the town’s new mayor is on board. “I like this concept. What an effective way to offer an NYC icon a second life,” Mayor Eric Adams tweeted Friday.
Adams, who took workplace on Jan. 1 and was portrayed by Chris Redd on “Saturday Night time Stay” on Jan. 15, added, “Tell us how we might help and we’ll be there for the maiden voyage.”
