Blog

Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Begins Rebuild of Yan­kee and Lima Piers, Paving the Way for Expand­ed Fer­ry Access

Oct 21, 2026 9:34 am

City-fund­ed invest­ment will cre­ate a new year-round pas­sen­ger fer­ry gate­way at Yan­kee Pier, add a resilient sec­ond vehi­cle and emer­gency access point at Lima Pier, and pre­pare the Island for its next chap­ter of growth

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced the start of a $64 mil­lion, City-fund­ed rebuild of two of the Island’s water­front work­hors­es: Yan­kee Pier and Lima Pier. The project will estab­lish Yan­kee Pier as a pri­ma­ry pas­sen­ger fer­ry gate­way to the Island, dou­bling its fer­ry land­ing capac­i­ty, intro­duc­ing new pas­sen­ger ameni­ties, and lay­ing the ground­work for expand­ed fer­ry ser­vice. Lima Pier will be rebuilt as a depend­able sec­ond access point for deliv­er­ies, con­struc­tion vehi­cles and emer­gency services.

The invest­ment comes as Gov­er­nors Island con­tin­ues its decade-long trans­for­ma­tion from a sea­son­al des­ti­na­tion into a year-round pub­lic resource for New York­ers and vis­i­tors. Fer­ries are the only way to reach the Island, and the new piers are designed to meet that demand for decades to come.

“Every vis­it to Gov­er­nors Island begins at the water’s edge. This invest­ment gives the Island a fer­ry gate­way built for the year-round des­ti­na­tion it has become, with room to wel­come more routes and more New York­ers in the years ahead,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent and CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island.

Man­hat­tan Bor­ough Pres­i­dent Brad Hoyl­man-Sigal said: ​“Gov­er­nors Island is one of our city’s great­est pub­lic gems: home to a thriv­ing arts com­mu­ni­ty, 120 acres of open space, and the future home of the New York Cli­mate Exchange. I’m elat­ed to cel­e­brate the rebuild­ing of Yan­kee and Lima Piers, which lays the ground­work for expand­ed fer­ry access and enables even more New York­ers to engage with the pro­gram­ming and green space Gov­er­nors Island has to offer. I’m grate­ful to Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Pres­i­dent and CEO Clare New­man, Deputy May­or for Eco­nom­ic Jus­tice Julie Su, Con­gress­man Dan Gold­man, State Sen­a­tor Andrew Gounardes, Assem­bly­mem­ber Charles Fall, Coun­cil Mem­ber Chris Marte, the New York State Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Con­ser­va­tion, the U.S. Army Corps of Engi­neers, and NYC Bird Alliance for their col­lab­o­ra­tion to make this project possible.”

“Gov­er­nors Island is an incred­i­ble pub­lic resource, and this major invest­ment in Yan­kee and Lima Piers will sig­nif­i­cant­ly expand access and improve the vis­i­tor expe­ri­ence for Brook­lynites head­ing to Gov­er­nors Island,” said Coun­cil Mem­ber Lin­coln Restler. ​“Whether com­ing for a pic­nic or art exhi­bi­tion, or just to see the stun­ning beau­ty of Gov­er­nors Island, I hope every Brook­lynite will make the short trip.” 

“Gov­er­nors Island is an extra­or­di­nary pub­lic resource for New York­ers, and invest­ing in its infra­struc­ture is essen­tial to ensur­ing its con­tin­ued suc­cess as a year-round des­ti­na­tion,” said Alice Blank, Chair of Man­hat­tan Com­mu­ni­ty Board 1. ​“The recon­struc­tion of Yan­kee and Lima Piers will expand fer­ry access, strength­en resilien­cy, and help ensure that the Island remains acces­si­ble to more New York­ers for gen­er­a­tions to come. Man­hat­tan Com­mu­ni­ty Board 1 wel­comes this impor­tant invest­ment in the Island’s future and its con­tin­ued con­tri­bu­tion to our city’s pub­lic life.”

Both Yan­kee and Lima Piers are 60 years old, and were orig­i­nal­ly built to serve the needs of the Unit­ed States Coast Guard. These infra­struc­ture projects are crit­i­cal to sup­port­ing the Trust’s mis­sion to expand access and use of Gov­er­nors Island, which has seen a remark­able trans­for­ma­tion over the past decade from a sea­son­al to year-round des­ti­na­tion, wel­com­ing near­ly 1 mil­lion vis­i­tors a year. Pas­sen­ger ser­vice will con­tin­ue to serve Sois­sons Land­ing in addi­tion to Yan­kee Pier once completed.

Prepa­ra­tion for the demo­li­tion of Yan­kee and Lima Pier will begin this month. Dur­ing con­struc­tion, Yan­kee Pier will be out of ser­vice, with NYC Fer­ry’s South Brook­lyn route and the Trust’s sea­son­al Brook­lyn Fer­ry ser­vice divert­ed to Pier 101 start­ing Novem­ber 2, 2026. The Yan­kee Pier Wel­come Cen­ter will be moved to Pier 101 dur­ing this peri­od. Pub­lic access to the Island’s park and pub­lic spaces, includ­ing the water­front esplanade, will not be impacted.

The redesigned Yan­kee Pier will fea­ture a widened, rec­tan­gu­lar deck accom­mo­dat­ing pas­sen­ger queu­ing for up to four routes, a float­ing fer­ry land­ing with expand­ed ves­sel com­pat­i­bil­i­ty, and pas­sen­ger ameni­ties includ­ing wayfind­ing and ser­vice infor­ma­tion, a canopy for shad­ing, seat­ing, and light­ing. Yan­kee Pier will be rebuilt to an 11′ ele­va­tion, built to with­stand flood­ing and severe weather. 

The new Lima Pier will be able to accom­mo­date ded­i­cat­ed deliv­er­ies for Island goods and ser­vices, con­struc­tion mate­ri­als for infra­struc­ture improve­ments, revi­tal­iza­tion of his­toric build­ings, new facil­i­ties, and park improve­ments, plus addi­tion­al access for emer­gency ser­vices. The new float­ing pier struc­ture will also include addi­tion­al moor­ing options for the Trust ves­sel fleet, and resilien­cy improvements.

The project has been approved by and coor­di­nat­ed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engi­neers and the New York State Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Con­ser­va­tion. In-water work will fol­low sea­son­al restric­tions that pro­tect fish and oth­er marine life. Lima Pier has host­ed a colony of Com­mon Terns, a state-list­ed threat­ened species, in recent years. The Trust has com­mit­ted to work­ing with NYC Bird Alliance on a float­ing dock to sup­port tern habi­tats dur­ing pier recon­struc­tion and beyond.

“NYC Bird Alliance has looked out for the Com­mon Terns on Gov­er­nors Island for more than a decade, and we’re grate­ful that our part­ners at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island are cre­at­ing a new habi­tat for these birds to nest,” said Dustin Patridge, PhD, Senior Direc­tor of Con­ser­va­tion and Sci­ence at NYC Bird Alliance. ​“By pri­or­i­tiz­ing terns in the pier redesign, the Trust is set­ting an exam­ple for how cities can thought­ful­ly use water­fronts while pro­tect­ing bio­di­ver­si­ty. We look for­ward to wel­com­ing the terns back to their new nest­ing habi­tat when they return from South and Cen­tral Amer­i­ca in spring 2027.”

The design and con­struc­tion teams were award­ed through com­pet­i­tive RFPs. The design of the pier ren­o­va­tions was award­ed to a team led by Indi­go Riv­er, a New York-based, women-owned trans­dis­ci­pli­nary design stu­dio, with sup­port from Assem­blage Land­scape Archi­tec­ture and COL­LEC­TIF Engi­neer­ing. Skan­s­ka will be the con­struc­tion man­ag­er for the project.

Ren­der­ing cour­tesy of Indi­go River.