North Cove Marina to Close for Years as Battery Park City Seawall Project Begins, Captains Warn of Lost Businesses
A multi-year flood mitigation project that aims to shield Lower Manhattan from future storms will shutter the city’s most expensive marina, leaving charter operators scrambling for slips
New York City’s North Cove Marina will shut this fall and remain closed through 2031 as crews build a massive seawall along the Battery Park City waterfront, a move city and port officials say is needed to protect Lower Manhattan from future coastal flooding — but one that some charter boat operators warn could put their businesses out of service.
The North/West Battery Park City Resiliency (NWBPCR) project calls for a coastal flood-barrier system along the Hudson River waterfront from First Place to Chambers Street to mitigate long-term sea level rise and increasingly erratic weather. Construction is scheduled to begin after the marina season ends on Oct. 31 and continue through 2031. The seawall is intended to prevent damage similar to the flooding from Superstorm Sandy, which caused roughly $310 million in damage to Battery Park City in 2012.
"Due to public safety considerations during active construction, and as outlined in our many public presentations, EIS documents, and over more than a year of public discussion, North Cove Marina will not be operational during the course of the [NWBPCR]," Nick Sbordone, a spokesperson for the Battery Park City Authority, said in a statement.
Boat captains and small maritime businesses that rely on slips at North Cove say the long closure leaves them with few realistic alternatives in a market where marina space has been shrinking. James Brooks, captain of the 104-foot sailing vessel Ventura and operator of a charter business that has been based at North Cove since the 1980s, said he fears he will not find a new home for the vessel and that much of his clientele would not travel to other boroughs.
Brooks noted that the Ventura was part of the flotilla that evacuated survivors from Lower Manhattan after the World Trade Center attacks in 2001. He said he has searched for months for a new berth but has been unnerved by closures and projects at other nearby facilities.
Owners and operators said some potential nearby moorings are unavailable or unsuitable. The Chelsea Piers complex has told operators it is at capacity and maintains a waiting list. Pier 25 lacks slips long enough for vessels such as the Ventura, which measures roughly 70 feet. Other facilities that formerly offered space, such as the 79th Street Boat Basin and Newport Marina in New Jersey, have closed, and Inwood Marina on Manhattan’s northern tip is slated for its own work this year.
David Caporale, a 66-year-old captain who runs Tribeca Sailing, said he and other tenants were blindsided by the timing and scale of the marina closure. He said he first learned of the NWBPCR at a community board meeting and that most marina tenants did not receive direct notice about the closure timeline.
Representatives of Brookfield Place, which oversees the mall adjacent to the marina, told The Post that the marina operator had warned seasonal customers about the anticipated closure. Tenants dispute that claim and say they learned details only through public meetings or posted documents. Caporale said documents related to the project dating to 2019 are available on the Battery Park City Authority website but that most tenants would not routinely consult those pages.
If captains cannot secure slips that meet the needs of their vessels and clients, they said they could be forced to sell boats and businesses at reduced prices or to close entirely. Caporale told reporters the closure threatened his retirement plan, which relied on income from his charter business.
City and authority officials say the project is a necessary adaptation to rising seas and stronger storms. The NWBPCR was developed with public presentations and an environmental impact statement that outlined construction staging and public-safety measures, officials said. The project footprint spans the waterfront between First Place and Chambers Street and includes a variety of flood-mitigation features designed to protect residences, businesses and infrastructure in Battery Park City.
The decision to temporarily close North Cove underscores a broader tension in coastal cities: the short- and medium-term disruption caused by large adaptation projects versus the long-term risk reduction those projects aim to deliver. Advocates for the seawall say it will prevent catastrophic storm damage and loss of life that cities are increasingly at risk of as sea levels rise and severe weather events become more frequent. Local maritime operators say the loss of established slips, even temporarily, imposes existential financial stress on small businesses with little margin to absorb multi-year displacement.
Officials did not provide immediate details on relocation assistance or a plan to reassign displaced tenants to other marinas. The Battery Park City Authority has held public meetings about the project and published related documents online; it reiterated that North Cove Marina will not be operational during active construction.
The seawall project highlights the trade-offs facing urban planners and coastal communities as they balance urgent resilience investments with the livelihoods of waterfront workers and small-business owners. For the captains and charter operators who have called North Cove home for decades, the coming closure raises immediate questions about whether their businesses — and in some cases their retirement plans — can survive a yearslong disruption.