! Alert

Stay safe in the heat: Drink plenty of water, spend time in the shade, and visit the first aid station at Soissons Landing if you feel unwell. Click here for important warm weather visitor information.

Stay safe in the heat: Drink plenty of water, spend time in the shade, and visit the first aid station at Soissons Landing if you feel unwell. Click here for important warm weather visitor information.

First-Ever Overnight Camp­ing Retreat Com­ing to Gov­er­nors Island this Season!

Today, the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island announced that for the first time, New York­ers will be able to sleep under the stars in their own city on Gov­er­nors Island! Begin­ning in May, Col­lec­tive Hotels & Retreats will bring unique, tem­po­rary sea­son­al lodg­ing against the back drop of the Island’s icon­ic views of the Low­er Man­hat­tan sky­line, New York Har­bor and Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty. As part of their oper­a­tion, Col­lec­tive will open a new pub­lic lawn with free pro­gram­ming and new din­ing options for all vis­i­tors to the Island dur­ing the pub­lic sea­son, and is com­mit­ted to part­ner­ing with local non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tions to offer oppor­tu­ni­ties for NYC youth to expe­ri­ence camp­ing on the Island.

As part of a three-year license agree­ment announced today, Col­lec­tive Retreats will trans­form six acres of the Island’s West­ern Devel­op­ment Zone into a unique, envi­ron­men­tal­ly-friend­ly overnight lodg­ing retreat with unob­struct­ed views of the Stat­ue of Lib­er­ty. Col­lec­tive Gov­er­nors Island, a New York City Retreat will accom­mo­date up to 100 overnight guests who will be able to select from a range of lodg­ing options. The com­pa­ny cur­rent­ly oper­ates in the Hud­son Val­ley and in Big Sky Moun­tain near Yel­low­stone Nation­al Park. Col­lec­tive Gov­er­nors Island is its first ven­ture in New York City.

Col­lec­tive Retreats will also cre­ate a new­ly land­scaped pub­lic lawn on the site with spe­cial events and pro­gram­ming such as live music, inno­v­a­tive din­ing, recre­ation, well­ness activ­i­ties and much more. Dur­ing the Island’s pub­lic hours, the site’s lawn and din­ing options will be open to all Island vis­i­tors. In addi­tion, Col­lec­tive Gov­er­nors Island will host spe­cial com­mu­ni­ty nights for non-prof­it youth orga­ni­za­tions, mak­ing the site acces­si­ble for New York City kids to expe­ri­ence a night on the Island under the stars. For more about Col­lec­tive Gov­er­nors Island, vis­it www​.col​lec​tivere​treats​.com.

Late last year, Col­lec­tive Retreats respond­ed to a Request for Pro­pos­als (RFP) that The Trust issued in Octo­ber 2017. The RFP sought inter­im, tem­po­rary enter­tain­ment and recre­ation­al uses for the West­ern Devel­op­ment Zone, a flat paved site locat­ed on the South­ern por­tion of Gov­er­nors Island. The Trust received a broad range of pro­pos­als that were eval­u­at­ed based on impact to Island oper­a­tions, fit with the over­all char­ac­ter of the Island, demon­strat­ed oper­a­tional expe­ri­ence and pro­posed fee offer. These new inter­im uses for the West­ern Devel­op­ment Zone des­ig­nat­ed today will offer fresh, excit­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for vis­i­tors to expe­ri­ence the Island in new ways. Site fees gen­er­at­ed by these inter­im uses will go towards fund­ing the Island’s oper­a­tions and stew­ard­ship of over 90 acres of pub­lic open space.

Pho­tos by Kate Osborne and Tim­o­thy Schenck