A concrete magnate is seeking to stop the SS United States from being sunk off the coast of Florida so that it can be turned into a "floating ecosystem" in New York City.
The famed ship—which is larger than the Titanic and still holds the trans-Atlantic speed record for an ocean liner—was bought by Florida's Okaloosa County for $1 million. Officials are planning to sink it off the Gulf Coast and turn it into the world's largest artificial reef.
The 990-foot vessel was already supposed to have begun its journey south after spending years moored on the Delaware River in Philadelphia, but its departure has been delayed indefinitely.
However, John Quadrozzi Jr., who runs a concrete empire and is the owner of the Gowanus Bay Terminal in Brooklyn, told New York City blog Gothamist that he is focused on coming up with a "compelling, realistic reason" for Florida officials to abandon their plan.
Quadrozzi said he has a 1,300-foot parking space for the vessel near the mouth of the Gowanus Canal and would like to turn the historic ship into a "floating ecosystem" focused on sustainability.
"Coworking space, incubators. Preferably things that are more maritime and environmentally focused … The vessel is just filled with small spaces in it, which would be ideal for that type of use," Quadrozzi said.
"It gets built up in increments. There are residences. There are commercial spaces. There are industrial spaces."
Quadrozzi's backers include Dan McSweeney, who cofounded the SS United States Conservancy. He pitched a proposal to turn the ship into a floating affordable housing project on the Hudson River to a local community board last month, the Columbia University student newspaper Columbia Daily Spectator reported.
Newsweek has contacted Quadrozzi, McSweeney, Okaloosa County and the SS United States Conservancy for comment via email.
The ship had been scheduled to depart Philadelphia at low tide on November 15. But, days earlier, Okaloosa County officials announced that the departure had been delayed due to bad weather and "to ensure logistic details and procedures maintain ideal conditions for the move." A new date has not yet been announced.
When that day comes, multiple tugboats will tow the vessel to Mobile, Alabama, the county said in a press release. It will spend about a year there in preparation for its sinking off the Florida coast.
Contractors will remove hazardous material "to ensure this deployment is clean and not harmful to the environment it aims to benefit," officials said. Modifications will also be made to ensure that the vessel lands upright when it is sunk.
Okaloosa County officials said the exact location where the ship will be sunk has not yet been decided, but it is expected to be around 20 miles south of the Florida Panhandle region in the Destin-Fort Walton Beach area.
Quadrozzi said he is not confident that the ship will make it to Florida. "Taking a vessel like that magnitude out into the deep sea and around the horn of Florida, the likelihood of it even making it there is questionable," he told Gothamist.
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