There could soon be a new ferry between Jersey City and Manhattan, but you likely will not be allowed to use it unless you work for Citigroup.
The parent company of Citibank is planning a corporate ferry service that would connect the Newport Marina in Jersey City with Lower Manhattan. Filings from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection show that Newport Associates Development Co., an affiliate of LeFrak, applied for a waterfront development permit that would allow for an existing floating dock at Newport to be modified in order to make way for the ferry.
The financial firm’s ferry service would connect its campus on Washington Boulevard near the Jersey City waterfront with its new global headquarters near Hudson River Park on Greenwich Street in Tribeca.
A Request for Proposals that was issued in January by the Hudson River Park Trust included a letter from Citigroup describing its interest in utilizing an upcoming water taxi landing at Pier 25 in Manhattan.
In the letter, company representative Gerald O’Reilly wrote that “Citigroup seeks to establish a water taxi service to transport Citigroup employees, guests, and invitees across the Hudson River between the New York City and Jersey City offices beginning in late 2018 or early 2019,” adding that the service would operate on weekdays all year long from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Boats would leave every half hour from each side and would likely be run by a third-party, according to O’Reilly’s letter. There would be a capacity of 49 riders per boat.
Citigroup, which declined to comment for this report, would not be the first financial firm to operate a private ferry shuttle between New Jersey and New York. Goldman Sachs has an agreement with New York Waterway to provide service between Battery Park City and 30 Hudson Street.
