Pete Davidson’s ferry dream not dead, just very expensive

In early 2022, Pete Davidson and Colin Jost bought a Staten Island Ferry, and it has since become a wacky, if slow-moving, subplot in their lives. Tabloids have reported that the ferry was sitting unused; Radar Online reported that the comedians’ “bromance” was in trouble over the endeavor. But Davidson is here to assuage everyone’s (read: probably investors’) fears. His plans are still happening, but it simply takes a while to renovate a massive transit vehicle. “The John. F Kennedy sanctioned ferry. It’s the biggest one, it’s like a 5,000-seater,” Davidson told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. “Believe it or not, not many people bid on it.” 

“A lot of people joke about it, but we have a very extensive plan, and we’re a lot closer than people seem to think,” he said. Those plans include a hotel on the top floor, a movie theater, an “entertainment theater,” and a shopping center. “It’s only been two years, and people are like, ‘I guess it’s dead!’ And it’s like, we need like $100 million! Give us a second.” 

This does mostly square with previous reports from outlets that aren’t Radar and The New York Post. In March, Curbed showed some renderings of the project and shared that the plan is to take it between New York and Miami, or maybe up and down the Eastern Seaboard “like a carnival.” Their report had placed the budget at $34 million, so either Davidson just picked a big, round number, or costs really have skyrocketed. (Both options seem equally likely to this writer.) But it does seem like revenue has already been coming in, with Tommy Hilfiger hosting a Fashion Week event on the boat in September. Davidson goes on to say he talked to Jost just last week and they have “tons of stuff going on with it,” so there. “But in the meantime, if you wanna have a party on it, like seriously, you can. It is available.”