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Jacob Riis Bathhouse on track to reopen as private club by end of July
By
Liam Quigley
Published Jun 24, 2026
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Liam Quigley / Gothamist
By
Liam Quigley
Published Jun 24, 2026
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A long-abandoned building on one of New York City’s most popular beachfronts is set to begin reopening as a private club and hotel next month after an $88 million renovation that dragged on for nearly a decade.
The Jacob Riis Bathhouse, which was built in 1932 by then-city Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, sat empty and dilapidated for more than half a century. It’s set to begin reopening this summer as the Rockaway Ocean Club.
The building sits adjacent to Jacob Riis Park, also known as the “People’s Beach.”
The private club plans to open in phases, starting the final weekend of July, with a pool available only to members who pay an annual fee starting at $1,000.
That space will operate on Fridays and Sundays once it opens, alongside a public outdoor lounge area featuring mobile bars and a food truck. The developers also aim to open a 1,800-person concert venue and event space at the site this summer.
The club also plans to roll out a beach shop facing the boardwalk alongside other limited concessions while it builds out the space’s main kitchen.
Next summer, the club plans to unveil a 28-room hotel alongside a rooftop restaurant and lounge for guests and club members.
The mobile food and drink options unveiled this summer should be replaced with a permanent bar and pizza shop accessible from the boardwalk.
Liam Quigely / Gothamist
The future hotel space was a construction site during a tour on Tuesday.
“It's like putting together a million-piece jigsaw puzzle with pieces that keep changing shape," said Ursula Damani, co-owner of the project, who’s been working to resurrect the bathhouse since 2017. "It's been boarded up and empty for 54 years. There are generations of people. This building has just been a ghost in the backdrop of family photos,” she said.
Ursula Damani has spent nearly a decade working to restore the old bathhouse.
Liam Quigley / Gothamist
Damani said that the club will offer free concerts and reasonably priced merchandise from its shops facing the boardwalk.
She noted that the building has been fortified against future flooding, with all electrical systems above grade and a deployable “muscle wall” kept on site to redirect storm surges.
Three years ago, the National Park Service closed parts of the beach directly outside the hotel after extreme erosion washed away thousands of tons of sand dumped there by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Damani said the project won’t restrict beach access and that she doesn’t want visitors to the nearby “People’s Beach” to feel alienated by it.
“ New York City is such an incredible tapestry of people and personalities, and creating a space for people to come and feel welcome, and it, it'll be self-vetting,” she said. "If people don't feel there's a place, then I respect that, you know? But my hope is that they at least come and give us a try and get to know us.”
Rockaway resident Stefan Goldberg, 32, said he has walked by the structure for years, wondering what was going on behind the construction fences.
“ I'm actually happy they're doing something about it, because I was always in my head, I'm always thinking, ‘What was this?’” Goldberg said.
The nearest hotel on the peninsula is the Rockaway Hotel, which opened in 2020, a few of miles down the beach.
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Liam Quigley
Liam Quigley is a reporter covering parks & sanitation for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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