City finds place to build long-desired Rockaway hospital

A vacant city-owned plot of land could be the future site of a level one trauma center in Rockaway, and the city has committed to getting it through. Screenshot via Google Maps 

By Ryan Schwach

Though a number of major questions remain about the city’s early efforts to bring a long-desired level one trauma hospital to the Rockaway peninsula, the city recently checked off a big to-do off their list – figuring out where it will be built.

Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has committed a vacant city-owned plot of land on Beach 62nd in the heart of the Rockaway peninsula for the trauma center, which locals have been calling for for more than a decade.

While major hurdles remain, the City Council, in their recent response to the mayor’s executive budget, said they are looking for money to get the site squared away.

The plot of land, located on Beach 62nd Street along Rockaway Freeway, is currently owned by the New York City Housing Authority, and will need to be transferred to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.

In order to do so, NYCHA must get federal approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the city must pay $300,000 for the transfer, which the City Council included in its Fiscal Year 2026 budget response.

“With the mayor’s commitment to making the NYCHA site on Beach 62nd street and Rockaway Freeway available for the trauma center, the Council calls on the administration to allocate $300,000 in Fiscal Year 2026 to complete the federal land transfer process and secure the site,” City Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers, who has long advocated for the trauma center, said in a statement Tuesday. “I would like to thank the administration and my Council colleagues for their continued support in this effort. This funding would move the project one step closer to reality—and bring life-saving emergency care within reach for residents of Southeast Queens.”

In a report last year, a task force dedicated to studying the possibility of bringing a trauma center to the Rockaways – which is spearheaded by Brooks-Powers – identified the land as a possible site.

The report pointed out the area would not require any demolition, is near a subway station and not adjacent to nearby residences.

Brooks-Powers' office said that the Adams administration privately committed to the Beach 62nd Street site after last year’s budget when the city put $25 million into the proposal – but neither the councilmember nor the mayor have mentioned it publicly.

“I continue to work in partnership with the administration to advance the creation of a long-overdue level one or level two trauma center on the Rockaway Peninsula,” Brooks-Powers said.

Her office confirmed that the administration’s commitment to the site came after budget negotiations last year, and a working group has been established to get it through the land transfer process.

Last year, city and state officials rallied in support of a trauma center on the Rockaway peninsula. Officials included Mayor Eric Adams, City Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers and Lynn Schulman, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and State Assemblymembers Khaleel Anderson and Stacy Pheffer Amato. Eagle file photo by Ryan Schwach

City Hall said the mayor has committed to the goal of using the site as a trauma center, and that preliminary discussions are ongoing.

“Mayor Adams believes strongly in the need for equitable access to health care access across the city,” said a City Hall spokesperson. “That’s why the Adams administration has invested $50 million in capital funds to support the development of a trauma center in Far Rockaway, and $30 million for a health center on the peninsula, which is currently being built. We continue to work with the community and City Council to increase access to health care in Far Rockaway.”

The potential site is located smack in the middle of the peninsula, something future neighbors are happy to hear.

“I think it would be a win-win for all of the Rockaway residents that live here,” said Edwin Williams, the president of the Heart of Rockaway Civic Association, which represents the Arvene neighborhood at the center of the peninsula. “It would be a home run for everyone in Rockaway.”

Williams sees the potential location as a true benefit for all of the peninsula, from the west end to the eastern end and Far Rockaway – which has long struggled with healthcare options.

“It's completely congested further east,” Williams said. “They've been doing a lot of dense building over there, so I think it's a little more open right in the middle…that might be an ideal location to work if they can work out the logistics.”

“I think that's an excellent idea, and I hope they move all the bureaucratic red tape out of the way and make it happen,” he added.

The calls for a trauma center on the Rockaway peninsula have been steadily growing since

the closing of Peninsula Hospital in 2011.

Currently, the closest level one trauma center for most Rockaway residents is around 10 miles away at Jamaica Hospital, which takes more than half an hour to get to, often made more difficult by ever-present traffic on the Van Wyck Expressway.

“The nearest trauma center is nearly 10 miles away, a distance that can mean life and death in an emergency situation,” Brooks-Powers said at a rally last year.

While it has long been considered a long shot, a trauma center in the Rockaways has gained significantly more traction in the last two years with endorsements from Mayor Adams as well as Council Speaker Adrienne Adams.

However, while there is a site planned and some money allocated toward the project, Rockaway is still far from getting the facility they want.

Rockaway would need the state to approve either a level one or level two trauma center, which categorizes the type and level of service a trauma center is capable of providing.

Officials want one of the top two levels, and anything less would mean that any new hospital would lack the ability to address the two types of trauma incidents officials want treated in Rockaway: shootings and drownings.

There have been questions about whether or not Rockaway has enough trauma cases to reach the requirements for a level one or level two center, but city health care officials and Brooks-Powers said the licensing has already been discussed with state health officials.

For the site itself, the land transfer would need to be approved by the federal government, and the $300,000 would need to be included in the city’s budget.

At a rally in September, officials called on Governor Kathy Hochul to kick money in as well, but the governor has yet to respond to those requests.

Local officials are hoping that there can be money allocated in the state budget this year for the center.

“Governor Hochul I hope you're listening to all of us,” Speaker Adams said at that rally. “Because we need you to invest your time and the state's dollars to present the deserved equity for these great people of this great Rockaway peninsula.”