A year after the city put Long Island at the center of its long-term recovery plans, officials seem no closer to actually finding the money to make it a reality.

City government is keeping quiet about how much it would cost to get the island’s derelict facilities operational once the bridge is rebuilt, but even low estimates in the hundreds of millions of dollars would be a massive undertaking given Boston’s capital budget.

The shuttered facility helped kick off today’s crisis when it was abandoned in 2014, and in 2024 the Wu administration gave it new prominence as the endgame solution to difficulties siting long-term recovery options. The focus then was on permitting and paying for the bridge, and officials didn’t have solid answers about funding for the larger undertaking of rebuilding the recovery campus.

A year later, little seems to have changed.

The mayor’s office did not respond as of press time to repeated requests for an updated roadmap or new estimates, nor did Senior Infrastructure Advisor Chris Osgood.

Sue Sullivan, executive director of the Newmarket Business Improvement District, said that she and other civic leaders in the South End haven’t gotten a clearer picture from the administration either.

“What we know is, it’s at least five to ten years away from happening,” she said. “No [we haven’t gotten any estimates.] Osgood gave an update to the working group a few months ago and didn’t give price estimates, just indicated that they’re doing some work to shore up some of the buildings there.”

Osgood did publicly note in August 2024 that the administration planned to split up the project into smaller sections to divide its upfront costs. Beyond that, the mayor’s office simply said it would look for funding in the capital budget and possibly from private philanthropy.

Old estimates from the tenure of former Mayor Martin Walsh estimated campus reconstruction would cost upwards of $550 million, almost certainly an undercount today after years of inflation and spiking construction costs. More recent estimates from private developers suggest the cost could be over $1 billion.

City Councilor Erin Murphy told The Boston Guardian that the city’s capital budget simply doesn’t have that kind of slack.

“[Finding that money would be] nearly impossible right now,” she said. “The $35 million Charleston Pool renovation was a lot of money. And then we put a hold on wanting to renovate Madison Park High while we go through the process of trying to get money through the state. We’re talking years before we go forward with any much-needed renovation. And they’re talking hundreds of millions there? I don’t see how we would find that money.”

She also cautioned against counting on outside funding from the state or federal government as wallets tighten nationally.

“The city would have to look elsewhere or find different streams or cut other departments because we’re not broke obviously, but we are losing grant funding and state and federal funding,” she said. “What other projects would then be put on hold? Madison Park would cost around $700 million, and we’ve already committed to that hoping to get some money from the Massachusetts Building Authority. I don’t see how we could do both projects.”

State Senator Nick Collins said that a $1 billion cost estimate sounded correct to him, and that he was skeptical even a divided upfront cost would find support at the state level today. He suggested recovery campuses at the Shattuck Hospital or on a retrofitted cruise ship might be more attainable.

“A request like that has to be met with a policy change,” he said. “Any time you’re looking at an investment like that, like when we dredged the harbor, the state, city and federal government each had a significant commitment. Right now, I don’t see anybody getting behind a billion-dollar request with the city’s current policies.”

Murphy expressed some frustration with the amount of emphasis Long Island gets when it’s years away and residents face severe disruptions today. She wanted to see the city take action on a closer timescale, hardening enforcement and establishing a more robust treatment system with existing property.

Sullivan had similar stances. She and other stakeholders in the South End will be meeting for new talks with the city in July, and among their highest priorities is getting a plan in place to implement the Recover Boston interim treatment facility. She said she hopes to have a concrete plan within six months.

“We’re saying, ‘Let’s figure out how we can make this happen at least until Long Island is actually any kind of reality,” she said. “We need it now. We can’t wait five or ten years.”