After sitting boarded up for more than half a century, the Art Deco bathhouse at Jacob Riis Park is back in business this summer as the Rockaway Ocean Club. The restored pavilion now mixes public-facing shops and a central event courtyard with a private members club, a rooftop restaurant and a small hotel tucked into the historic shell. The overhaul brings back a long-missed front door to the Atlantic while adding modern flood protections and updated infrastructure. For beachgoers, that means new spots to grab coffee and a slice, plus a fresh debate over how much of the complex will stay open to everyone.
What’s inside the renovated bathhouse
Inside, the project stitches public concessions around a wide central courtyard built for live music, markets and family programming, according to Rockaway Ocean Club. A boardwalk cafe, gelato counter, pizzeria and multiple vendor stalls ring the space. The club also lists a rooftop restaurant and a 28-room boutique hotel among its offerings, and the National Park Service points to a long-term lease and preservation review that made the rehab possible. Coverage of the reopening has described the overall buildout as a roughly $88 million renovation, with the New York Post reporting details of the finished project.
Private club, public beach
A major new ingredient is a members-only beach club occupying part of the restored bathhouse, with ocean-view lounges and a pool that reports say holds about 162 people. Membership tiers reportedly start around $1,000 a year for peninsula residents and top out near $3,500 for families from outside those ZIP codes, as reported by La Voce di New York. The operation's hospitality team includes executives with Soho House experience, and Pierre Antoine Dourneau lists long service at Soho House on his profile.
Why some neighbors are wary
Longtime visitors and neighborhood writers say carving a paid club out of the "People’s Beach" risks changing the park’s character and the informal uses that made Riis feel different from other city shorelines. Coverage from design and local outlets has flagged those concerns while noting that many parts of the redevelopment remain public-facing. See reporting by Dwell and context about Riis in Gothamist.
How this got paid for
The restoration follows years of planning, public review and private financing. The National Park Service signed a long-term lease with Bathhouse Lodge LLC, led by CBSK Developers and Brooklyn Bazaar, and developers closed on roughly $47.5 million of construction financing in 2023, Commercial Observer reported. The National Park Service frames the project as a preservation effort meant to restore key visitor amenities while using private investment to carry out a complex, resilient rehabilitation.
When you can go
Developers say select boardwalk vendors and the central courtyard are expected to open over Fourth of July weekend, with the rest of the program rolling out through the summer, according to the New York Post. The Rockaway Ocean Club site and job listings describe a "Summer '26" preview season and show the operation hiring for front-of-house roles ahead of peak beach weather.
For longtime Rockaway regulars, the real test will be whether the restored pavilion still feels like the People’s Beach or whether a membership paywall reshapes who spends time on the sand. After years of debate and deferred maintenance, the bathhouse is finally back in use, and the conversation over how public parks and private money should coexist is only just getting started.
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