They’re offering safe harbors.
The city will help owners of controversial party boats move their vessels to other municipal docks after officials banned the ships from operating out of Sheepshead Bay’s Emmons Avenue pier.
Leaders of the Economic Development Corporation — whose so-called Dock NYC program oversees five borough piers, and others in Manhattan and Staten Island — will assist captains of the controversial boats with finding alternate ports to set sail from, according to a mayoral spokeswoman, who said the ships can also dock at privately owned berths.
“We will work to accommodate pick-ups at appropriate Dock NYC locations as capacity allows. Or, they can relocate to privately owned marinas,” said Jane Meyer.
Starting May 1, the booze boats will only be able to dock at the Emmons Avenue pier under a new ban that prohibits the vessels from picking up and dropping off revelers there, Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz (D–Sheepshead Bay) announced on Feb. 19.
The exact list of city piers the party cruises can run from, however, is undecided, according to reps for the mayor, the Economic Development Corporation, and the Department of Parks and Recreation.
But one location is the economic-agency-operated marina at Brooklyn Army Terminal, according to a spokeswoman for Mill Basin state Sen. Roxanne Persaud, whose constituents last year protested a mayoral proposal to dock the boats in their neighborhood.
“Party boats, according to City Hall, will be relocated from Sheepshead Bay to the Brooklyn Army Terminal,” said Matthew D’Onofrio.
Mayoral spokeswoman Meyer confirmed that the Sunset Park terminal, where other booze boats already operate, is among the viable locations for the vessels banished from Sheepshead Bay.
“We will work with boat owners if they want to move, and Brooklyn Army Terminal is one of the options,” she said.
Officials ruled out using three of the four other economic-agency-operated piers in Brooklyn, claiming two — the Bayview Marina at 2825 Flatbush Ave., and the Mill Basin Wharf at 2731 Flatbush Ave. — do not have the required infrastructure for party boats, according to Meyer.
And the third, the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park, is only for commercial and industrial use, according to Economic Development Corporation spokeswoman Stephanie Báez.
The fifth agency-owned dock, at a landing area within the Atlantic Basin off the coast of Red Hook, features similar infrastructure and amenities as Brooklyn Army Terminal, but Báez could not confirm by press time whether it would also welcome the party boats.
