As remote work reshapes the way people live and travel in cities, Americans are taking to waterways not just as part of their commute but as part of their daily lives.
Some coastal cities are seeing a resurgence in ferry ridership after falling during the pandemic, and growing interest in sea transit is spurring both new types of ferry service and waterfront development.
In Bremerton, Wash., a fast-growing suburb of Seattle on the Puget Sound, a $141 million development has opened less than 100 yards from a high-speed passenger ferry that travels to downtown Seattle in 30 minutes. The older ferry takes one hour. Carteret, NJ, launches a ferry to Manhattan, adjacent to a waterfront complex of film and television productions. Ferry service is also central to the development of a new community on a former naval base off San Francisco.
The boom in ferries comes as municipal governments struggle to address a variety of social, economic and environmental challenges, and as some of the nation’s largest cities look to marine transportation to ease traffic, connect communities and meet housing and commercial goals. development. Last year, the Federal Transit Administration announced grants totaling $220.2 million for ferry systems. And local governments are offering tax incentives to redevelop industrial zones.
Ferry systems are expanding beyond traditional commuter and tourist routes to meet the “distinctive travel patterns” of remote workers and retirees, said Ryan Avery, interim director of the Washington Transportation Center at the University of Washington. “They do it for shopping, going to a football, soccer or baseball game,” he said.
“The market has changed,” he continued. “People also want faster service.” He noted that the changes also open up opportunities for new types of terminal design — as mixed-use hubs that offer other transit connections, rather than as a single-use building surrounded by parking.
In Bremerton, the ferry and the nearby Marina Square apartment complex are part of a third wave of waterfront development, said Wes Larson, founder and CEO of Sound West Group, which qualifies for an eight-year property tax exemption for improvements to Marina. Square. The area’s population has grown by 6 percent since 2020, in part due to Seattle’s high housing costs. (The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,997 in Seattle and $1,447 in Bremerton, according to Apartments.com.)
Marina Square has 270 apartments, a seaside park, a restaurant and a market. a YMCA is also planned. The complex includes studios and furnished extended-stay suites for workers at Naval Base Kitsap, the area’s largest employer, four blocks away.
In the past seven years, the transit agency in Kitsap County, which includes Bremerton, has opened three passenger-only fast ferry routes to Seattle that can carry 120 to 350 people. The business had more than one million riders in 2023, a 37 percent increase from the previous year.
Last summer, the Washington State Ferries system reopened its main ferry terminal in Seattle after a $467 million renovation. The city is developing a new waterfront that will reconnect downtown with the Puget Sound.
The terminal, called Colman Dock, features public space, retail and food vendors, outdoor plazas and an electric ferry charging area. The shipping service is aiming for a zero-emissions electric fleet by 2050.
In Carteret, Mayor Daniel J. Reiman is close to seeing through his 15-year effort to launch a ferry service, with operations expected to begin next year.
Carteret has no train station and local highways are overwhelmed with traffic, Mr. Reiman said. The ferry, he said, would provide “a much-needed alternative mode of transportation to New York and provide an opportunity to redevelop an older urban community.”
The city recently approved a $1 billion waterfront project that will include Carteret Stages, a 15-story film and television production studio, hotel and retail and restaurant pavilion, to be built on a former DuPont Chemical site that has been vacant for nearly 60 years. The site will also include a ferry terminal that will offer 20-minute service to Manhattan.
In San Francisco, a new neighborhood of retail, commercial space, parks and 8,000 apartments, condos and townhouses is taking shape on Treasure Island, a former naval base a 10-minute ferry ride from downtown. The project is a partnership between the city and a private development group, Treasure Island Community Development.
“There is no more direct way to connect an island resident to the beauty of the bay than to have a ferry,” said Chris Meany, principal of Wilson Meany, the group’s lead developer. “The ship prevents you from ever being stuck in a traffic jam.”
Treasure Island Community Development is funding ferry operations, beginning in 2022, for the first few years. The Emergency Water Transportation Authority, a public agency that operates the San Francisco Bay Ferry system, will take over.
The authority’s ferry system, which includes 15 passenger vessels, has regained about 90 percent of its pre-pandemic ridership, in part by lowering fares and adding more service, said Jim Wunderman, the agency’s president.
The agency is also working on an expansion plan to ensure reliable transportation in the aftermath of an earthquake, he said. One strategy is to work with local communities and developers to build ferry terminals in new neighborhoods.
“We support ferries as a missing transit link, but also to create opportunities for waterfront development,” said Mr. Wunderman, who is also chief executive of the Bay Area Council, an economic development group.
Treasure Island will include housing for workers and homes and services for people who have experienced homelessness, Mr. Meany said. Buildings will be set back 300 feet from the water’s edge to handle storm surges.
Even the seasonal ferry service is attracting growth. Last year, a new ferry in Lynn, Massachusetts offered a 35-minute crossing to Boston’s Central Wharf from June to October. A development company bought an adjacent property that had been vacant for 40 years and built the 331-apartment Breakwater North Harbor complex, said Jim Cowdell, executive director of the Lynn Economic Development and Industrial Corporation, the city’s economic development agency.
“The property was sold because of the ferry,” Mr Caudell said. “It’s a two-minute walk: You get on the ship and you go to Boston.”
