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The Jacob Riis Park bathhouse has spent so long sitting empty on the edge of the Atlantic that plenty of New Yorkers assumed it would stay that way forever, slowly dissolving into salt air and beach nostalgia.
But this summer, the massive Art Deco complex at the Rockaways’ beloved “People’s Beach” is officially reopening after 54 years, thanks to an eye-popping $88 million restoration that’s already stirring up serious debate.
Originally opened in 1932, the Jacob Riis Bathhouse was once one of the city’s most grand beach destinations, complete with 10,000 changing rooms, rooftop dining, dance halls and enough space to handle more than 8,000 visitors at a time. The sprawling complex was synonymous with summer in New York—and later, with Riis Beach’s identity as a famously welcoming gathering spot for the LGBTQ+ community.
Then came the decline. The city shuttered the bathhouse in 1972 after years of maintenance struggles and the building spent decades boarded up, battered by storms and largely forgotten except for occasional park use.
Now, after nearly a decade of planning and a three-year construction push, the restored complex is reemerging as the Rockaway Ocean Club. The redevelopment includes a revamped boardwalk lined with a coffee shop, juice bar, gelato stand, pizzeria and dive bar, plus a sprawling public courtyard, rooftop restaurant and eventually a 28-room boutique hotel. Much of the space will remain open to the public beginning Fourth of July weekend.
But it’s the members-only portion that has people talking.
Part of the bathhouse will operate as a private beach club featuring lounges, an oceanfront restaurant and a 162-person pool. Memberships reportedly start around $1,000 annually for locals and climb to roughly $3,500 for families outside the Rockaways.
For critics, the idea of introducing exclusivity to a beach nicknamed “The People’s Beach” feels fundamentally at odds with the place’s history.
“Jacob Riis Park has always been known as the People’s Beach, and it should remain a place that is accessible to everyone, not the base for a private club,” longtime visitor Mary Farias told the New York Times.
Others worry the membership model could slowly reshape the culture of a beach long viewed as one of New York’s most democratic public spaces. Jen Mecum, a Crown Heights resident who has visited Riis for decades, told the Times: “Every time you are talking about memberships or costs, it is limiting. Capitalism and queerness have never been compatible.”
Still, not everyone is opposed. Some locals say the alternative was letting one of New York’s most striking waterfront landmarks continue to rot. “It’s better than this shell of a building that has just been sitting there,” Rockaways resident Mike Benigno told the paper.
And honestly? On a sweltering July weekend when Riis can draw upwards of 45,000 people a day, there’s a decent chance many beachgoers will be too busy chasing tacos, frozen drinks and ocean breezes to care what the membership fee costs.