As reported last December 4-5, the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp Board of Directors (RIOC) approved a:
… 10 year lease extension of the Roosevelt Island Master lease agreement between New York City and NY State together with a non binding agreement to explore further residential building development….
According to a November 25, 2025 memo supporting the Master Lease extension from RIOC President BJ Jones to the RIOC Board of Directors:
… This Extension Term will help owners of leasehold condominiums on Roosevelt Island obtain new mortgages and refinance existing mortgages, which will, in turn, provide more funds for maintenance and repair of existing housing stock, give residents more control over their housing costs, and prevent the potential devaluation of their homes.
While most of the land on Roosevelt Island has been redeveloped consistent with the General Development Plan attached to the Master Lease (GDP) and includes residential housing, commercial space, open space, public facilities and infrastructure, RIOC, the City, and State of New York (State) recognize the need for more housing given the City’s housing crisis with potential at two underutilized sites on Roosevelt Island, both of which have been used in connection with operations of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. These two sites are: (i) the site of the decommissioned steam plant (Steam Plant Site), which is currently being demolished, and (ii) the site of Coler Specialty Hospital and Home (Coler Site), which is currently in use, though underutilized. There is also the recognition of the need for additional funding to support future operational and capital needs, which new development may provide, as well as the need for a longer-term Master Lease extension beyond the ten-year extension to further provide greater stability and certainty for home andbuilding owners.
In conjunction with the aforementioned ten-year extension, RIOC, the City, and the State also desire to enter into a nonbinding memorandum of understanding (MOU) that establishes a framework for the parties to work cooperatively to develop a plan with the goal of including mixed-income development and supporting infrastructure….
We had not seen any plans for future Roosevelt Island residential development. Until now. Earlier this week, a tipster provided a copy of the:
Future Redevelopment of Roosevelt Island Memo Of Understanding
signed by New York City, New York State, RIOC and dated December 15, 2025.
According to the Future Redevelopment Of Roosevelt Island Memo of Understanding:
… Any redevelopment of the Coler Site will include necessary planning, reviews and stakeholder engagement, and key components for such Coler Site redevelopment may include construction of a three million square feet mixed-use development on the Coler Site, which will include approximately 3,500 mixed-income housing units.
Any redevelopment must include a plan for a replacement facility or facilities for Coler residents, whether in a new purpose-built facility at the current Coler Site or in new alternative location or locations within the City….
… RIOC, working with its state partners, will lead redevelopment of the Steam Plant Site. Any redevelopment of the Steam Plant Site will include necessary planning, reviews and stakeholder engagement, and key components for the redevelopment of the Steam Plant Site may include construction of a mixed-income housing development with approximately 400 units…
NY State and NYC are to fund a Community Engagement Process on the Redevelopment of Roosevelt Island in the amount of $4 million with the State and City contributing $2 million each. My understanding is that NY State has funded their $2 million but NYC has not yet funded their $2 million portion.
Yesterday, I asked NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Press Office:
1- Does the Mayor’s office have any comment on the current status of plans for the Redevelopment of Roosevelt Island to include 3500 apartment units at the Coler site and 400 units at the Steam Plant site? What plans are there for Roosevelt Island transportation and other infrastructure improvement to accommodate almost 4 thousand new residential units on a small island?
2- Any comment on plans for the relocation of Coler Hospital and its residents?
3- Any comment on when NYC will fund its $2 million portion of the Community Engagement Process and when the process will begin?
4- Any other comment on the redevelopment plans for Roosevelt Island?
I have not received a reply as of publication.
I asked RIOC for comment too. According to RIOC Assistant Vice President Communications & Government Affairs Bryant Daniels:
The non-binding MOU executed between the city and state as part of the Master Lease extension lays out a broad framework regarding potential development on the island, which will be informed by the planning study about Roosevelt Island’s future that was also agreed to as part of the Master Lease extension.
Here’s an aerial view of the Coler Hospital site via Google Maps.
and street view of the Steam Plant site from Google maps..
NYC Housing Preservation & Development is currently in the process of demolishing the Steam Plant despite the opposition of some local residents.
What would you like to see developed, or not, at the Roosevelt Island Coler and Steam Plant sites?
I’ve been advocating for a combination of Senior affordable and market rate housing with an Assisted Living and a renovated Long Term Care facililty at the Coler site.
By comparison to a 3 million sq ft mixed used development on the Coler Hospital site, the mixed use Deutsch Bank (formerly Time Warner) Center is 2.8 million sq ft. So imagine something even bigger than this being plopped down on the site:
https://share.google/mXgRveDD4Yq9zJ9ud
Stop the development now or your beautiful peaceful island will turn into what the Hamptons and the north fork have become. Every piece of land is being developed pricing our workforce out of the market, destroying the habitat of our most vulnerable animals and wildlife. Long Island will sink if any more people and vehicle congestion year round.
It’s nice you want to build and accommodate 4,000 more people, but you should take into consideration the infrastructure for the island. We don’t even have a bank on the island any longer.
Assisted Living and Long Term Care facililties on RI would be essential.
Absurd fantasies of space-and-profit maximization are, as always, dancing in the heads of real estate developers. Imagine how long the lines will be for the Tram, and how crowded the subway platform will be, with all those additional housing units. Insanity. But the developers won’t care; they travel by helicopter.
The only thing that makes sense is assisted living & long term care,
No way that the island can sustain 4000 units without consideration major changes to transportation to start with…
We need a bank and Urgent Care. We need Graduate Hotel to reopened because it provides two restaurants. Priority Tram boarding for residents of RI. The Stem Plant could be turned into a Food Hall of some sort along with family/friendly activities since the island population has significantly increased…. Just a few things off the top of my head….
RIOC should be focusing on infrastructure improvements on the island rather than further development. Part of that infrastructure improvement should include the piers and good seating along the waterfront, particularly Eleanor’s pier and Lighthouse Park. All of this along with priority boarding for RI residents should happen before any additional housing is built. There also need to be more shops.
It should be no surprise that the state/city would want to develop the Coler site. 3500 units in a space about the size of Southtown? That seems like an overestimate unless they build much higher. As far as the Steam Plant, housing at the edge of the bridge itself is unprecedented — all the residential buildings I have seen in the city are at least 40-50 feet away. Other uses are possible but the air pollution, extreme noise level and contaminated soil render the suggestions I have seen for development unfeasible in my view. Except for a parking lot, which those who own cars in the Southern part of the Island would favor.