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Meet the big cheese of Rat Island.
A Bronx man bought his very own private island at auction yesterday after spending more than a decade staring out from his back yard, wishing he owned the 2 1/2-acre rock with the off- putting name.
“It’s right off my property. It’s so close I can go swimming back and forth,” said retired Port Authority worker Alex Schibli, 71, who has lived on City Island for 12 years.
“I can see it from my window. My wife and I kayak around it all the time,” the lifelong sailor told The Post. “I feel like it has always belonged to me. It’s so lovely out here. You wouldn’t even believe you were in New York. And there are no rats at all!
“Once I knew it was up for sale, I just had to have it,” he said.
Schibli beat out seven other bidders — including a fisherman, a nonprofit and a family hoping to name it after a relative — to purchase the island for $160,000.
And even though Schibli can do whatever he wants with his the land — which, according to legend, housed typhoid victims in the 19th century and once supported a cottage — he said he plans to keep it as is.
“Rat Island is a flat rock but it’s a very special rock, at least to me. Some developers might build something on top of the island if they got their hands on it, but I believe it should be conserved, kept as is,” he vowed.
Ozzie Crisalli, the Realtor who oversaw the sale, said part of the appeal of owning a private island is simply being able “to say you own one.”
“It’s not every day an island goes up for sale that you can rename or basically do whatever you want with,” he said.
The island’s previous owner, Edmund Brennen, is retired and living in Jupiter, Fla.
It’s fitting Schibli owns the island, which becomes submerged during high tide, since he has spent years maintaining it.
“I noticed people were having parties and get-togethers out there. They would leave beer bottles and other garbage. I took it upon myself to clean up after them. I care about the island so much,” he said.
But there’s one thing he doesn’t care for.
“I really don’t like the name ‘Rat Island,’ ” he said. “I would love to change the name to reflect something more natural,” he suggested, adding he might pick a name closer to home.
“Perhaps ‘Malina Island,’ after my 4-year-old granddaughter.”