Washington: American comics Colin Jost and Pete Davidson from ‘Saturday Night Live’ have purchased a decommissioned Staten Island Ferry boat for USD 280,100 with plans to turn it into New York’s hottest club.
According to USA Today, Jost and Davidson teamed up with comedy club owner Paul Italia on the winning bid for the John F. Kennedy, a 277-foot vessel that shuttled commuters between the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island from 1965 until it was taken out of service last August.
“The Staten Island Ferry is definitely something iconic. We wanted to figure out a way to save it and to do something special with it,” said Italia, a real estate investor and co-owner of the restaurant and comedy club The Stand.
‘SNL’ sent up the sentimental purchase during its ‘Weekend Update’, where the purchase was revealed. “Hey, we bought a ferry! The windowless van of the sea,” Davidson cracked. “It’s very exciting. We thought the whole thing through,” Jost deadpanned.
“We’re boat people now, Colin,” a giggling Davidson announced, adding, “You always were, you look like you own the yacht they rent out for rap videos.”
Italia said transforming the 2,109-ton ferry into an entertainment venue will cost millions of dollars and won’t happen anytime soon.
He said, “It’s really early stages here. You have a great idea and you’re working on executing it and the first step is the acquisition of the boat, and I think that that’s the story right now. We were successful in acquiring the boat and making sure it didn’t go into the scrapyard like the last two.”
As per USA Today, named after the 35th US president, the John F. Kennedy was the oldest ferry in the fleet when it was decommissioned last summer.
