Imaginative and prescient for a brand new marine terminal at Hunts Level, which might be created following removing of the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Heart barge.
Picture courtesy NYCEDC
Mayor Eric Adams introduced Monday that the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Heart barge in Hunts Level—which beforehand housed overflow inhabitants from Rikers Island jails—might be eliminated, and the world remodeled right into a marine terminal connecting to the recently-announced “blue highway” system on the South Bronx waterfront.
At a press convention in entrance of the barge, Adams mentioned the revamped terminal would cut back truck visitors across the Hunts Level Meals Distribution Heart by as much as 9,000 journeys monthly, thereby bettering well being situations corresponding to bronchial asthma for native residents.
The mission displays “a whole new concept for how we move goods around the city,” mentioned Andrew Kimball, president of the New York Metropolis Financial Growth Company (NYCEDC).
Adolfo Carrión Jr., Deputy Mayor for Housing, Financial Growth, and Workforce and former Bronx Borough President, joined Adams and Kimball for the announcement and mentioned the barge will quickly be gone for good, and planning for the terminal has already begun.
The mission represents a imaginative and prescient for “empowering and investing in the people of Hunts Point and the Bronx,” mentioned Carrión Jr.
Along with the environmental and public well being advantages, the mission is predicted to generate almost $4 billion in whole financial influence over 30 years, together with 100 everlasting jobs and 400 building jobs.
On the new terminal, “We’ll unload cargo from all across the world for delivery throughout New York City, put even more New Yorkers to work in vibrant industries, and continue to show that cities can do bold, ambitious things,” mentioned Adams.
Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr., who represents Hunts Level, referred to as the mission an “economic game-changer.”
He mentioned the barge has been a scourge on the Bronx waterfront because it was first used as a jail within the early Nineties. Earlier administrations promised to decommission and take away it however by no means acquired it carried out, Salamanca Jr. mentioned.
He defined that Monday’s announcement fulfills Adams’ private promise to Salamanca Jr., having vowed throughout his mayoral marketing campaign to eliminate the barge and substitute it with a mission to learn the borough.
To help the terminal and native residents, the EDC additionally introduced it awarded $1.4 million to create an Financial Mobility Community in Hunts Level. The Larger Hunts Level Financial Growth Company (GHPEDC) will associate with group teams corresponding to The Level CDC, Rocking the Boat and the Bronx River Alliance to attach Bronxites with good-paying jobs on the Meals Distribution Heart and within the inexperienced economic system.
Gibson referred to as the mission “a bold, progressive step forward” that can probably assist carry down the Bronx unemployment price, which was 6.1% in April 2025 in comparison with 4.6% citywide, state information reveals.
Activists calling for the closure of all Rikers Island jails praised the removing of the barge, whereas pressuring Adams to shut the remainder of Rikers as quickly as doable.
“Like Rikers, the Boat has facilitated mass incarceration and dehumanization. Today’s announcement is a victory for all of our members who have suffered its harms, and raised their voices to call for its closure,” mentioned Darren Mack, Co-Director of Freedom Agenda, mentioned in an announcement.
Mack mentioned that situations at Rikers have worsened and the mayor appears to be stalling on the closure plans, however mentioned, “It is still not too late for Eric Adams to make good on his previous promises.”
The NYC EDC will now concern a Request for Proposals (RFP) searching for an organization to deal with “responsible disposal” of the barge. Kimball mentioned he expects it to be eliminated inside 60-90 days.
Design work has already begun and is predicted to be accomplished by 2020 or 2031, across the identical time because the $3.7 billion proposed Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which stretches from Pier 7 at Atlantic Ave. to Pier 12 in Crimson Hook.
