It’s been 20 years in the making. Now, Governors Island is set to be the heart of the city’s climate future.

Governors Island passed from federal control to local control in 2003 under then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

And on Monday, city officials announced that the island off the southern end of Manhattan will be the home of what will be called the New York Climate Exchange.

What You Need To Know

  • On Monday, Mayor Eric Adams along with other city officials unveiled the final proposal for a planned climate hub on Governors Island

  • The New York Climate Exchange will include a 4,000-square-foot facility that will house training and educational programming

  • The project is expected to break ground in 2025 and be complete sometime in 2028

  • As part of the project, ferry service will increase to every 15 minutes, with a new hybrid ferry starting summer 2024

The private-public partnership includes a $700 million, 400,000-square-foot campus that will include classrooms, research labs, public exhibition space and auditorium space.

The hub is expected to generate $1 billion in economic impact and create 7,000 jobs.

“A mass timber building that is totally electric, 100% self-sustaining in terms of energy, totally off the grid. The first New York City building certified as a living building,” said Clare Newman, president and CEO of the Trust for Governors Island.

The campus will also serve as a training and research facility that will aim to grow the city’s green workforce while also providing coursework related to climate solutions.

The center is expected to train about 6,000 people a year, and reach thousands of students from kindergarten to 12th grade annually.

The hub will also create over four acres of open space and act as an incubator for 30 businesses.

“Building a cleaner, greener and more prosperous future for every New Yorker is what this project is all about,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference.

He went on to note the important role the hub will play in shaping the city’s future.

“This is where we will meet the challenge of climate change head on. This is where we will protect our city’s air and water. And this is where we will train thousands of students for the next wave of green jobs,” Adams said.

The hub will officially break ground in 2025, with an expected opening day of the actual hub in 2028. As part of the project, ferry service will be increased to the island to every 15 minutes.

The unveiling of the project comes after a nearly two-year competition was launched to find a proposal to reinvent the island as a climate hub.

The winning proposal was led by Stony Brook University in collaboration with other academic institutions. The proposal beat out 13 other submissions.