City’s new agreements with cruise lines will boost economy and reduce emissions

Seeks to expand use of “shore power”

September 28, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook with the Queen Mary 2 in port on a sunny afternoon.
Photo: Wikimedia photo by Jim Henderson

Share this:

RED HOOK — The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) on Thursday announced new agreements with Carnival Cruises, Princess Cruises, Cunard, Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC Cruises for future sailings from the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook as well as the Manhattan Cruise Terminal.

The cruise industry, according to NYCEDC, creates an economic impact of nearly $420 million per year in New York City and spending related to cruise passengers and crew supports approximately 2,667 jobs across New York City, with more than 2,000 of those jobs representing tourism-adjacent industries including hotels, food and beverage, shopping, transit, and entertainment.

NYCEDC anticipates that more than 1.3 million passengers will travel through the Manhattan and Brooklyn Cruise Terminals this year, a record-high, that signals cruising and tourism have strongly rebounded in New York City.

“This support to the growing cruise industry is good for our local economy,” said Randy Peers, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. “We applaud EDC for undertaking these three long-term lease agreements that will provide the cruise operators with operating stability, while ensuring that investments are being made to locally support small businesses, schools and workers.”

“The cruise industry brings millions of people into New York City who spend millions of dollars in our local economy. NYCEDC’s long-term agreements will help ensure much of this spending will be directed to our local restaurants and bars, supporting our small businesses and workers, and further cementing New York City as the global culinary and hospitality capital of the world,” said Andrew Rigie, executive director, NYC Hospitality Alliance.

Each of these new agreements are designed to increase economic inclusion and sustainability of the cruise industry through expanded community benefits and emissions reduction. This includes:

• Establishing a Community Priority Fund: $1 per passenger will be added to a new fund, managed by NYCEDC, to directly address community priorities in the neighborhoods surrounding the cruise terminals. Over the next 10 years, NYCEDC estimates this groundbreaking fund will generate approximately $14 million that will go directly to the Red Hook and Midtown Manhattan communities.

• Ground transportation planning: Partnering with cruise lines to track and improve the ground transportation and travel experience, to maximize public transportation options, reduce vehicular traffic, and improve the travel experience in the terminals and for the nearby communities.

• Reducing emissions: Tracking and implementing measures to reduce emissions where commercially and operationally feasible.

• Connecting to shore power: When feasible, cruise ships will connect to shore power to reduce emissions and ensure that all ships calling in New York City be equipped with shore power connections by 2028.

• Increasing local provisioning: Develop a local provisioning plan with the prioritization of outreach going to registered Minority Women Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs).

• Developing educational partnerships: Create new and expanded relationships with New York City based educational institutions and participate in at least one career fair and one networking event per year.

Additionally, each cruise line is required to submit an annual report to NYCEDC showing their progress and commitment to each of the community benefits.

In 2017, the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal became the first port on the east coast to have electric plug-in shore power and remains the only one to this day. Still, because many ships’ designs are not compatible with this system, some ships continue to burn fuel, causing harmful emissions, while docked there.

NYCEDC is committed to expanding shore power across both the Manhattan and Brooklyn Cruise Terminals and is currently securing additional shore power infrastructure for the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal to allow more ships to connect.

Term lengths for the new usage agreements range from three to fifteen years and each of the agreements has the option for five-year renewals. The new usage agreements replace the current agreements with each respective cruise line.