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By Joan Gralla

NEW YORK, Oct 12 (Reuters) - New York City's 172-acre (0.7-square km) Governors Island is one of about three locations Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday said he was considering for a public health program that the billionaire philanthropist said he may create.

The federal government in 2003 sold the historic island, a former Coast Guard base just some 800 yards (730 metres) off Manhattan's southern tip, to the city and state for a $1.

Though entertainment companies, real estate developers and universities over the years all have offered competing plans, the city got no acceptable responses when it formally sought proposals, the mayor said on his weekly radio show.

One plan, for a gambling casino, would simply take much too long to win approval, he said, noting: "Forget about those kinds of things."

Bloomberg said his foundation might launch a public health think tank, drawing scientists and pharmaceutical companies from around the world, though he said he wished to avoid competing with existing programs.

"One of the things that occurred to me was if I was going to fund a big public health institution where people from around the world would come. You'd have a small staff and people would come and study for a while there," said the mayor, now in his second and last four-year term.

This sort of endeavor, which would include conferences, would make good use of Governors Island's landmarked buildings.

Bloomberg said such a visible project could also lure "other enterprises," though he offered no specifics.

"It will be a major commitment for the foundation, so I've just started to think seriously" about it, he said, adding he also was considering at least two other sites, one overseas.

Governors Island is split between its historic northern end, where military forts date to 1810 and 52 buildings with some 1.4 million square feet (130,000 square metres) of floor space must be preserved, and the more open southern end, which is ringed by a promenade.

A HISTORY OF HEALTH ADVOCACY

The mayor has long supported public health programs, perhaps most notably at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he studied for an electrical engineering degree.

The university's School of Hygiene and Public Health was renamed after him in 2002.

Bloomberg said his Governors Island plan would cost about $100 million to start and then $20 million to $30 million a year to run. He might welcome help from other charities.

"I'm not sure we wouldn't be happy to have help from others as well," he said.

Other elected officials would have to approve Bloomberg's proposal.

"There would have to be some kind of public process," the mayor said. "I can't say 'Bloomberg should just take it.'"

New York City might have to woo the former Republican, whose political switch to an independent prompted talk of a presidential bid.

"There are a couple of other places where it probably would works as well. Maybe I would do it there, maybe Governors Island," he said.

Bloomberg, who has homes in Bermuda and London, did not reveal what other sites he was considering.

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