The magazine The Real Deal offers a window on the past of New York real estate. In the current issue it reports on the how the federal government rejected 21 bids from private investors who were interested in purchasing Ellis Island, 55 years ago this month.
In 1954, the federal government stopped using the island – which famously served as a gateway to 12 million immigrants for 65 years as they entered into the country. Two years later it was announced that the island would be sold. The government valued the island at $6.3 million, but the market didn’t agree. The highest bid was from Sol Atlas at $201,000. His proposal called for a $55 million redevelopment of the land into what he called “Pleasure Island”, which included a 600-room hotel and cultural center. The sale, as you know, never happened.
In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson added it to the Statue of Liberty National Monument. The island was opened to tourists on a limited basis from 1976 to 1984, and in 1990, the island’s main building was reopened as the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

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