With only a few weeks before this year’s AIVP World Conference Cities & Ports – in New York City from November 18 to 21 – we want to shine a spotlight on our host and partner, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC).
You already know New York City as a global financial, media, culture, and tech hub. But you might not realize that New York is a city of thriving waterfronts, and that NYCEDC is making visionary investments today to reshape and revitalize the city’s shores for tomorrow and generations to come.
For example, NYCEDC is advancing multiple ambitious projects under an initiative called the ‘Harbor of the Future,’ reactivating historic waterfront assets for the modern economy. Notable here is the new offshore wind port under construction at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which will support a 810-megawatt offshore wind development that will power 500,000 homes as it creates thousands of jobs.
Within the Harbor of the Future is also the city’s ‘Blue Highways‘ initiative, which will shift freight off of trucks and city roads and onto waterways. The concept has been discussed for decades, but NYCEDC has made more progress in the last two years than the two decades prior, announcing multiple new sites from a micro-freight facility at the Downtown Skyport in Manhattan, to the Hunts Point Marine Terminal adjacent to a massive food distribution hub in the Bronx, to the Brooklyn Marine Terminal (BMT) — a recently-approved $3.5 billion, 122-acre project to modernize the aging container terminal with clean electric cranes, new piers, and climate-resilient infrastructure.
As a next step on this project, NYCEDC launched a Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) to solicit proposals on potential maritime operations at the Brooklyn Marine Terminal, seeking input on the optimal size, layout, and economically viable uses of this commercial port. NYCEDC invites domestic and international port operators, developers, and maritime industrial businesses to submit expressions of interest.
Besides maritime freight, NYCEDC is also moving people on the water. The organization operates NYC Ferry — America’s largest passenger ferry system, with 7.4 million annual riders and 25 landings. Since its 2017 launch, NYC Ferry has consistently broken ridership records while increasing cost efficiency, and NYCEDC is actively evaluating expanded routes and service.
In case it isn’t clear, New York City and NYCEDC are the perfect venue and co-host for this year’s conference. We’ll debate big visions, spark new ideas, and create the relationships to make them a reality, all with the inspirational backdrop of the Manhattan skyline rising over New York Harbor.
