You Could Own a Private Island Right Outside NYC—for $13 Million
Itching to live that island life but can't bear the thought of giving up your 9-to-5? May I present: the commuter island. Yes, I'm serious. Columbia Island, a self-sustaining, off-the-grid private island in the New York City commuter town of New Rochelle, has just hit the market for a cool $13 million. Oh, and if one island isn't enough for you, fear not-the property comes with quite the gift-with-purchase: nearby Pea Island, a legendary "party island" is included in the sale.
Both spits of land have quite illustrious histories. Columbia Island was owned in the 1940s-1960s by CBS, the broadcasting company which gave it its name. Once the company ceased use of the transmitter bunker, broadcast tower, and "emergency accommodations" there in 1963, TV and radio starts Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy took it off their hands, broadcasting a talk show from the island before eventually gifting it to the College of New Rochelle. In 2007, the island's current owner took on the arduous project of converting the broadcast station into a livable estate.
And convert he did: the developer outfitted the island with a modern home complete with a solar-powered electrical system, a reverse-osmosis water filtration system, in-floor heat, and flood and storm protection which he describes as "better than lower Manhattan’s." So yes, the home is self-sufficient and essentially Apocalypse-proof.
But if all that talk of the end of the world gets you down, you can jaunt over to Pea Island, which for years was known as a party haunt for the Huguenot Yacht Club, which owned it for many years. Now, it serves as a natural foil to the brick bunker of Columbia Island-or, essentially, your boat-accessible backyard. Forget white picket fences; this is the true Suburban dream.
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