The term “New Fire Island” has gone viral online over the last couple of days. Fueling the trend is the news that a group of investors want to create a unique, gay vacation hotspot.
The people involved say that traditional resorts such as Fire Island Pines, Provincetown and Key West have become too expensive and only the wealthy can purchase property there.
“We’re bringing together a community of gay men to build a new paradise, inspired by the original Fire Island Pines – in the sunny Mediterranean and for a new era,” reads a statement on the New Fire Island website.
How about we take this to the next level?
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They say that, unlike the US, “Europe doesn’t have a walkable, purpose-built gay holiday escape.”
It continues, “In building New Fire Island, we’re looking for others who want to join us on this journey. Together, we will find a site, design it and build the place of our dreams.
“From the West Village to West Hollywood, everyone knows that when gays get together to build a village, magic happens and prices skyrocket.
“So let’s get together, find an island and build paradise.”
It’s inviting people to join a waitlist for more details. There’s no word yet on what areas are being shortlisted for this project.
It says it’s hoping to offer homes at around US $500,000 “for a four-bedroom freestanding house with a pool, in gay paradise. Now, it is our turn to benefit from gentrification, not suffer through it.”
The “leadership team” appears headed by Australian architect, Nigel Smith, who appears in a promo video on the website. Someone’s already incorporated part of it into a parody sketch (below).
Then there’s former Olympic swimmer turned real estate entrepreneur Brett Fraser and venture capitalist Aron D’Souza. The latter made headlines in 2018 with a Buzzfeed story titled “This Man Helped Peter Thiel Demolish Gawker”.
20yrs ago, a house at old Fire Island was affordable. Now the young are priced out. Its the same story in gay destinations around the world. Why buy a $2million house in a compromised location, when your own home and land at perfect https://t.co/wVthZaTEc3 is $500,000? pic.twitter.com/EJ8PN4Tsk6— NewFireIsland (@NewFireIsland) January 14, 2024
Unsurprisingly, many gay men took to Twitter to voice opinions on the project. Most threw shade at the idea.
These hedge fund gays really trying to build a “new Fire island for a new generation” in the Mediterranean…
…baby I am not trying to fly internationally to do c*ke in someone’s bedroom during a ‘Barbie’ themed pool party. I can literally just take the Long Island Railroad. pic.twitter.com/DZUGIv3YQo— Daniel Brennan @aol.com (@DannyJBrennan) January 15, 2024
I just feel like this is completely writing off the historical significance of fire island and what it means for the LGBTQIA+ community. You’re never going to be able to recreate something like that just call it a new gay destination— Tom Hot (@tommelendez) January 16, 2024
contrary to what the venture capitalists behind “the new fire island” would have you believe: there is no such thing as good gentrification – even if it benefits a minoritised group and especially if that minoritised group is white gay men. /1— ben (@benvyle) January 15, 2024
Queerty messaged the New Fire Island team with some questions. Here’s what they had to say about the project.
What has the reaction been so far to your plans? When did the waitlist go live and what sort of interest has it generated?
Right now we are building a community of common interest around the idea of a purpose built gay escape, and the support has been nothing short of extraordinary. The waitlist went live last weekend, and we have 1,291 people interested in buying land, in fact, it ticked over to 1,297 just now!
Gay hotspots such as Provincetown and Fire Island grew organically – how confident do you feel that such a location can be created by design?
We love the history of P’town and Fire Island. We now live in the TikTok era where word travels fast and wide, and what’s more, we now have hard fought rights that generations before gained for us. This makes the rapid creation of a gay escape very possible amongst the global gay village.
In terms of design, we are co-creating New Fire Island as a deeply intentional community with those people who express interest in buying land. So, we are very confident that we can create this community in no time at all, in fact, it already has 1,302 members just now – it just ticked over again!
How many potential sites have you narrowed this down to? Will it be on an island, and if so, is it likely to belong to any particular country?
There is 50,000km of Mediterranean coastline, and we have eyeballed 10,000km of it. We need a tiny portion and there are several hundred islands for sale at any one time. As we said above, we will work with our community to finalize a shortlist and purchase the right piece of land – its going to be a lot of fun doing this together!
Do you envisage protests to the plans from local residents already living in whichever location you choose?
No. The new community will not be butted up against any existing residents – that is part of the magic of existing Fire Island – a sense of escape!
Realistically, if your plans come to fruition, how many years are we looking at before you envisage homeowners taking up residency for the first time?
We need to be very clear that building the future is hard. With a community we do it together. For example, when Elon Musk decides to build a new car, he doesn’t spend a billion dollars on a factory, make the car, and then present it to the world as though its perfect. No, he spends a small amount of money on the Cybertruck fibreglass model, and shows it to people, who love it and become a community. These same very smart people put down a deposit and then wait five years for their Cybertruck – and by then its worth twice the price they paid.
We do have a detailed development plan and timeline that will commence once we achieve critical mass with our community. We will announce and make this plan public at that time. Right now, its gone to 1,305 on the waiting list — are you on the list?
This post was updated 01.18.24 to include replies from the New Fire Island team.
