Bridgeport ferry move back on track despite delays, pandemic

BRIDGEPORT — More than a decade after it first proposed relocating its cramped terminal to a larger East End spot, the Bridgeport- Port Jefferson ferry company appears to be just weeks away from securing a key state permit for the work.

But area residents, who have long anticipated the move and Seaview Avenue development they were told will transform their section of Long Island Sound shoreline into a job- generating business and tourism destination, are growing impatient.

“Everybody in the community is like, ‘ What’s going on?’ ” said Keith Williams, head of the East End Neighborhood Revitalization Zone, which has a key say in local economic projects. “They need to bring us up to date. Are they coming, not coming, or what?”

“We’re proceeding with our permits as fast as we can. That’s basically where we are,” Fred Hall, the ferry company’s general manager, said in an interview. “I would love to have this done already.”

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection on Feb. 5 announced a 30- day comment period for a license allowing soil remediation and construction at the ferry’s future Seaview Avenue site.

“So we are potentially looking at issuing the license mid- March,” Will Healey, a DEEP spokesman, said last week.

That would be welcome news for the ferry company, not only because of how long the relocation has been in the works but because of the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic these past 11 months.

The boats typically move passengers between Bridgeport and the village of Port Jefferson on

Long Island for both business and pleasure. But stay- at- home orders to stop COVID- 19’ s spread and the overall reluctance much of the general public has about going out have had a major impact on travel.

“We sometimes had zero passengers and zero cars early on,” Hall said. “Today, we are operating at about 60 percent of the business that we would normally expect to do. So we have a long way to come back. So clearly, that has not been helpful, financially.”

Hall said 100 of 150 employees were also furloughed early on — “it was a big deal” — though many gradually returned to work: “I expect to bring all back by May 1st at the latest.”

Despite the toll the global health crisis has taken on business, Hall said the ferry company remains determined to vacate its South End property for the East End. And, he emphasized, to hopefully do so before having to sink a lot of money into refurbishing its aging pier.

“We have a pier built in the mid-‘ 80s and it’s time for substantial work to be put into it,” Hall said. “I believe there is going to be a requirement to get some repairs done. I would love to say we could avoid it, but I don’t think we can.”

The city rejected the initial cross- harbor move in 2010, with critics at the time against shifting the ferry terminal farther from downtown businesses and the train/ bus station. The ferry company appealed that decision in court and lost in 2012.

By 2014, with greater economic development prospects for Seaview Avenue and the East End, opposition to the move dissipated and the municipal approvals were granted.

Then began the lengthy effort to secure the DEEP’s blessing. And even if that license is issued as of next month, Hall noted that local and state traffic permits will still need to be secured.

Once those are in place, the relocation will occur in phases. The first will occur over about 18 months, building an East End docking area that the ferries can use in an emergency. He said the South End terminal only has “one usable ramp” compared with the two in Port Jefferson.

“So if one gets knocked out, we can use the other,” Hall said. “We need to move as quickly as possible to put in a ramp on our ( East End) property in order to have an emergency backup in Bridgeport as well. That’s our goal and objective at this point. We want the infrastructure available. ... We can’t rely on a single way on and off the ferry.”

Roughly four or five years after that first phase is completed, Hall said, the “rest of the build out” will occur, which would be the new terminal building as well as a “streetscape” with other structures for potential tenants.

That final development is what the East End community has been looking forward to, said Ralph Ford, a leader in that neighborhood. He said residents there have been expecting something akin to Port Jefferson’s seaside tourist attraction that would make the East End “a destination.”

“The shops meant jobs. It was a big deal for us. This is really going to be really nice,” Ford said.

He and Williams cited growing frustration with a lack of communication about the terminal’s delays.

“When they needed us, we was backing them to come over here,” Williams said. “Then all of a sudden, they dropped out of sight.”

That feeling was exacerbated, they noted, after it was announced in late 2019 that Vineyard Wind of Massachusetts may be using the ferry’s Seaview Avenue property for its offshore wind energy project.

“We have not heard any more about it,” Ford said. “The ferry was one thing. People get off, do some shopping. They’re talking about an industrial entity. That’s something different.”

Hall called Vineyard Wind a “potential tenant” that could have use of the property in the short- term and then occupy a smaller portion of the property long- term.

Andrew Doba, a spokesman for Vineyard Wind, elaborated: “Initially the property is going to be used for staging ( for the offshore development) but that only lasts during the construction phase of the project. After that, we’ll have an operations and maintenance facility there, but that has a much smaller footprint.”

Doba also said, “We’re planning a series of community conversations around the city. The East End is definitely at the top of the list.”

And Hall said the ferry company is also always willing to meet with East End residents: “Not a problem.”

Hall also cited another pending development — the outdoor concert amphitheater — as a reason he was hopeful that the ferry business has a robust, postCOVID- 19 future.

Located off of downtown along the harbor, the amphitheater is being built where the former Bluefish minor league baseball stadium stood for 20 years. Construction was delayed for two years but the venue is expected to open this year.

“I think Long Island will be a good market for the amphitheater,” Hall said. “A lot of people don’t realize Brookhaven, the town where Port Jefferson is located, has half a million people in it. That’s a nice market to draw from.”