Earlier this month, State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman cut a deal with the former owner of Rivington House, requiring the Allure Group to pay $2 million in fines and other penalties. Now the for-profit nursing home’s owners — Joel Landau, Marvin Rubin and Solomon Rubin — are chiming in with their spin on the settlement agreement.
Allure’s decision to sell the former Lower East Side nursing home for $116 million to luxury condo developers and the city’s move to lift deed restrictions triggered several investigations. The state AG determined that there was no legal way to void the deal, but that Allure had violated the state’s not-for-profit corporation law. In addition to paying fines, the agreement requires Allure to open a new nursing home on the Lower East Side, and one in Brooklyn.
In a piece posted overnight, Crain’s reports that, “Allure is finally poised to pursue its stalled growth plans” after the state investigation came to an end. Even before the Rivington House controversy erupted, Allure’s executives said they were planning to open a new nursing home somewhere in the neighborhood. Now they’re free to move forward with that plan.
Marvin Rubin told Crain’s, “It was a big struggle for us the last two years while this was going on, and it affected our focus… Now we can continue to do what we do best, which is constantly improving long-term care.”
While community groups have lobbied for new nursing home beds on the Lower East Side, there’s definitely uneasiness about Allure’s new venture. K Webster of Neighbors to Save Rivington House, a local advocacy organization, said of Allure, “They have to be watched.” In a statement provided to The Lo-Down after the agreement was announced, the group said, “it is problematic to invite Allure to run another facility – anywhere.”
Allure has not announced where the new facility, and another nursing home it’s opening in Brooklyn, will be located. The AG is requiring the company to keep the facilities open for at least eight years.
The city recently announced that 60 new nursing home beds would be created at Gouverneur Health. Rivington House was a 219-bed facility.
