New York City Biden mentions Staten Island’s Arthur Kill terminal during visit The proposed site will serve as an assembly location for massive offshore wind turbines.

President Joe Biden made mention of Staten Island’s growing stature in the burgeoning offshore wind industry during his visit to New York City Tuesday, highlighting an infrastructure project that is expected to be part of a series of developments that revolutionize the borough’s West Shore.

Biden, while attending an event centered on touting the $300 million grant aimed at completing the long-mired Hudson River Tunnel project, spoke of the importance of improving the country’s infrastructure under the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in 2021.

His remarks included investment in the offshore wind sector that is slated to become a key part of the state and country’s goals to shift away from fossil fuels.

“On Staten Island, we’re upgrading the port at the Kill — at Arthur Kill terminal site to turn it into a state-of-the-art assembly site for wind turbines,” said Biden. “By the way, just one blade of these new wind turbines is 102 yards long. A hundred and two yards long.”

The 32-acre Arthur Kill Terminal, a proposed offshore wind turbine assembly facility in Richmond Valley, would be the only staging port on the East Coast located outside the restrictiveness of bridges — a feature that is expected to make it easier to transport the behemoth turbines out to sea.

The site received $48 million in federal funding in the fall of 2022 in a significant boost to its prospects. Part of that funding will be used to dredge 740,000 cubic yards to create a basin 35-feet deep to support development at the site, which will contain a 1,365-foot wharf that has enhanced load-bearing capacity.

Construction there is expected to begin in the fall of 2023, enabling the site to become operational by the end of 2025.

City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-South Shore) said he was glad the president shouted-out the development during his speech.

“It’s an anchor alongside a series of other projects up the Kill will bring over $500m & 1000s of jobs in Offshore Wind and construction to #StatenIsland,” said Borelli on Twitter. “A true infrastructure project.”

The Arthur Kill Terminal is one of three major developments along the Arthur Kill that is poised to make an impact in the offshore wind industry.

NorthPoint Development, a Kansas City-based company, has ambitious plans for two separate sites on Staten Island’s West Shore — a Rossville property that contains the behemoth LNG tanks visible from the West Shore Expressway and the former Kinder Morgan Terminal located just south of that plot.

The former Kinder Morgan facility, now dubbed the Staten Island Marine Terminal, is being proposed as a marshaling facility akin to the Arthur Kill Terminal where vessels can bring in components that are offloaded before being assembled and sent back out to sea.

“We’re grateful to @POTUS for highlighting today how Federal support for Arthur Kill Terminal will be instrumental in kickstarting the development of a domestic #offshorewind supply chain,” wrote Atlantic Offshore Terminals, the developer of the Arthur Kill Terminal. “Thanks to @POTUS and our congressional leaders for the opportunity to #BuildBackBetter.”