The SS United States Conservancy announced that it reached an agreement to settle a legal dispute with Penn Warehousing, which controls the pier where the former ocean liner is currently docked at the Port of Philadelphia.
According to a press release, the two parties have been in litigation over rent fees for the past two years, which culminated in an eviction notice earlier this year.
In late September, the SS United States Conservancy and Penn Warehousing returned to court for confidential mediation.
“The confidential settlement, which is now awaiting final disposition from the court, resulted in limited financial liability for the Conservancy,” the not-for-profit organization said.
The agreement, however, doesn’t change the court’s original ruling that the SS United States must vacate its pier in short order.
Issued in June, the original eviction order gave the Conservancy a 90-day window to move the 1952-built vessel from its pier.
“Faced with no options to save the SS United States in its current state and under a binding court order, we were left with the painful but unavoidable choice between scrapping America’s Flagship or converting it into an artificial reef in tandem with a land-based museum. We chose the latter as the most dignified path,” the group said.
The SS United States is now set to be sunk off Okaloosa County, Florida, to become an artificial reef.
“We understand that this decision is deeply challenging and emotional for our community of supporters. It certainly was for our Board of Directors, many of whom have been working for more than a decade to redevelop the ship,” the Conservancy said.
“While this is not the outcome we envisioned, we are grateful that the ship will have a future,” the organization added.
According to the group’s statement, on Saturday, Oct. 12, title to the SS United States will be formally transferred to Okaloosa County, which allocated more than $10 million for the vessel’s reefing project.