Governors Island Will Sprout $700M Climate Change 'Living Laboratory'

NEW YORK CITY — A $700 million "living laboratory" devoted to tackling climate change soon will sprout on the banks of Governors Island, officials said.

Mayor Eric Adams unveiled plans for the "New York Climate Exchange," a sprawling 400,000-square-foot campus that will be the nation's first climate research, education and jobs hub.

The exchange will bring $1 billion of economic benefit to the city, 7,000 permanent jobs and more, Adams said.

"I want to be clear: all New Yorkers will and must benefit from this major investment that we are making," he said.

"This is a place for every New Yorker to learn and engage with the environment, because all of us are in this together."

Groundbreaking on the campus itself will begin in 2025, with an opening slate for 2028, but the exchange is expected to start a "phase zero" this summer that consists of a physical space for public input, said Clare Newman, the president of the Trust for Governors Island.

The massive project has been teased for years, with former Mayor Bill de Blasio announcing in 2020 that the 172-acre island in New York Harbor would become a hub to prepare the city and the world for the effects of climate change.

After a design competition, the new Adams administration announced in October that the pool had winnowed to three finalists.

The winning proposal came from State University of New York Stony Brook, officials said Monday, along with a slate of eye-popping promises about its future.

Newman said the campus will center around a mass timber building that will be totally electric and 100 percent self-sustaining in terms of energy.

The structure will be the first New York City building to be certified as a "living building," Newman said.

Once constructed by contractors consisting of 35 percent minority- and women-owned business enterprises, the exchange will create 2,200 jobs that will be 100-percent union, officials said.

The campus will have classrooms, research space, laboratories and more, officials said. Roughly 4,500 public school students of all grades, 600 postsecondary students and 250 faculty and researchers will be served by the exchange every year, according to the mayor's office.

Thirty businesses a year will be supported in the exchange's planned incubator program, officials said.

Newman said 6,000 New Yorkers a year will receive training for green jobs at the exchange.

All the anticipated workers, students, trainees and visitors will require increased ferry service to the island, Newman said. Ferries will run every 15 minutes to accommodate them, she said.

“We believe Governors Island is the ideal place to tackle this challenge,” she said.