Hey, Suit! Your Ferry Is Waiting!

New York Water Taxi proudly kicks off service to Wall Street from Williamsburg’s Schaefer Landing:

Williamsburg’s tenure as “the new East Village” may have ended yesterday morning when the new ferry port at Schaefer Landing sent its first bright yellow Water Taxi on its way to Wall Street.

Not so long ago, Williamsburg was considered a hip new frontier for Brooklyn’s artists, writers, and musicians. The arrival of the Water Taxi — with its grandmotherly onboard offerings of cookies and hot chocolate — suggests that the wealthy financiers, consultants, and entrepreneurs who have recently made their nests along the waterfront are there to stay.

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“It’s going to provide a quick transportation into Manhattan, and it’ll therefore make the area more desirable,” said Helene Luchnick, the executive vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman who proudly claims to have kicked off Williamsburg’s development boom four and a half years ago. “In the two towers at Schaefer Landing, the monitor in the elevator will show the taxi schedule.”

Ms. Luchnick said she sees Williamsburg heading in the same direction as Dumbo and Soho, both neighborhoods which started seedy, turned artsy, and developed eventually into prime real estate for wealthy professionals. “There are still artsy types living in Williamsburg, but they’re not the ones buying into the new condominiums,” Ms. Luchnick said. “Every site up through Greenpoint has been sold for towers.”