A floating relic of New York’s mass incarceration era will soon be replaced with a gateway to the city’s maritime future.
Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday that the city will permanently remove the decommissioned Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center — a controversial jail barge moored in the East River off the Bronx’s Hunts Point neighborhood — and build in its place a new marine terminal designed to reduce truck traffic and support last-mile freight delivery across New York City.
The project, spearheaded by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), is part of the Adams administration’s vision to revitalize the city’s working waterfront. The newly planned Hunts Point Marine Terminal is expected to create 500 jobs — 400 during construction and 100 permanent — and generate $3.9 billion in economic impact over the next three decades.
“For hundreds of years, New York City’s waterways have powered our economy and made our city a global destination for commerce, capital, and cargo. With the investments our administration is making every day, we are writing the next chapter in that history and turning our waterfront into a ‘Harbor of the Future,’” said Adams. “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.”
The new terminal is part of the city’s “Blue Highways” initiative, which aims to leverage New York’s waterways to move freight, cutting down on road congestion and emissions. Officials estimate the Hunts Point facility alone could eliminate up to 9,000 truck trips per month.
The project, which the NYCEDC said is in a “design and planning stage,” will also include land remediation to address decades of pollution at the site, with completion expected by 2027.
The Hunts Point Marine Terminal will be adjacent to Con Agg Global’s new freight facility, which will begin operations later this year. That project is expected to divert 1,000 truck trips monthly by transporting construction materials like sand, gravel, and stone via barge.
Together, the two sites are intended to position Hunts Point within a broader maritime network that includes existing marine terminals throughout the Port of New York and New Jersey, as well as proposed upgrades and redevelopment at the Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Red Hook.
“Later this month, our city has a chance to do yet another big thing when leaders vote on the future of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal,” said Adams. “We have a once-in-a-generation chance to turn this crumbling facility into a modern maritime port with thousands of new homes, hundreds of thousands of square feet of industrial space, and dozens of acres of green space.”
The barge
Built by Avondale Shipyard in Louisiana, the 625' Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center was opened in 1992 to relieve overcrowding at Rikers Island. The 800-bed jail barge, nicknamed "The Boat," has been viewed as a symbol of systemic over-reliance on incarceration, and its removal comes after years of community advocacy and a broader push to shutter outdated correctional facilities.
In 2022, the Adams administration announced plans to decommission the facility and launched a community engagement process to redevelop the site. The facility was closed in 2023.
In the coming days, NYCEDC will be issuing a request for proposals to scrap or responsibly dispose of the barge.
“The vision to transform the decommissioned Vernon C. Bain Center into the Hunts Point Marine Terminal will usher in a new era for this site that will result in not only a new ‘Blue Highways’ facility, but bring waterfront access, greenway improvements, and much-needed good-paying jobs for the Hunts Point community,” said Andrew Kimball, NYCEDC president and CEO.
