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 The former Rivington House nursing home. Mount Sinai Health System has filed plans with the state to close and relocate Beth Israel Hospital and to open a behavioral health center in the former Rivington House nursing home building on the Lower East Side.
Mount Sinai plans to build a 70-bed facility with an emergency room on 2nd Avenue near 13th Street. After the new building opens in the year 2023, the existing Beth Israel complex, which includes nearly 700 hospital beds will be shuttered. It’s part of a large-scale plan by the healthcare conglomerate to shift care from a single large facility to neighborhood health clinics in downtown Manhattan.
As first reported in December of 2018, Mount Sinai will also be shifting its behavioral care center from the Bernstein Pavilion to a newly renovated facility inside Rivington House. More from yesterday’s press release:
Included in the $1 billion Downtown plan is a $140 million commitment to create a comprehensive, community-oriented behavioral health center: The Mount Sinai Comprehensive Behavioral Health Center. The new facility, located at the site of the current Rivington House, will offer downtown residents a holistic approach to mental health and become a one-stop location for psychiatric, addiction, physical health, and social service needs. The new facility preserves all of the existing services at Mount Sinai Beth Israel and offers a host of new services, including intensive crisis and respite beds, partial hospitalization program, intensive outpatient program, mobile and in-home services, behavioral health care engagement teams, and primary care services. The site will not include methadone treatment services. “The model of care for the Mount Sinai Behavioral Health Comprehensive Center will not be available anywhere else in New York. This Center exemplifies Mount Sinai’s deep and longstanding commitment to behavioral health, and it is not simply a re-location or addition of services. It is a new, transformational model of care for people with behavioral health conditions that creates a fully integrated continuum of care in one location,” said Sabina Lim, MD, MPH, Vice President and Chief of Strategy, Behavioral Health, for the Mount Sinai Health System.
Rivington House, of course, has an infamous recent history. Developers intent on converting the former nursing home for AIDS patients into luxury condos purchased the building after the city mysteriously lifted deed restrictions on the property. Mount Sinai is leasing the building from Slate Property Group, part of a consortium which bought the property for $116 million. The Rivington House debacle has been one of the biggest scandals of the de Blasio administration.
Rivington House, 45 Rivington St. The former Rivington House AIDS nursing home is destined to become a behavioral health facility operated by Mount Sinai Health System, Crain’s reported this morning.
Previous plans by the property owners, led by Slate Property Group, to convert the longtime community center to luxury condos, have apparently been abandoned. The Rivington House debacle, in which deed restrictions were mysteriously lifted, was one of the biggest scandals of Mayor de Blasio’s first term.
Crain’s reported that Mount Sinai has signed a letter of intent to lease the 150,000 square foot building at 45 Rivington St.. A spokesperson said, “The new center will be a state-of-the-art, community-oriented destination for behavioral health care and a ‘one-stop’ location of services for mental health, addictions, physical health and social-service needs for the downtown community.”
The move is part of Mount Sinai’s larger plans to open up community-based health care centers as it prepares to close Beth Israel Hospital. The Bernstein Pavilion, located near Beth Israel, will relocate to Rivington Street.
A local group, Neighbors to Save Rivington House, has been campaigning tirelessly since 2016. The group released a statement yesterday afternoon, after learning about the Mount Sinai deal:
Once again a deal is being attempted without notice to or involvement of the community most impacted by the removal of 219 nursing home beds in Rivington House. Unacceptable. While it is heartening to hear that our relentless 3 1.2 years of advocacy appears to have succeeded in staving off a luxury condo development, Mount Sinai Hospital is a newcomer to the neighborhood, and this community’s advocacy and its needs are requisite to any final outcomes here. We believe the corrective course of action for the public good is a sit-down with all parties concerned. It is important to redress the lack of transparency that has dogged this building’s recent history – especially given that this has (and will) severely impact those who are vulnerable and without voice. We do not know exactly what Mount Sinai’s intended uses are as there has been no discussion with us. But if it does not include nursing home housing it will not meet this neighborhood’s critical need. There are urgent and appropriate uses for this building if it is available for long-term lease. Since it is currently configured as a nursing care facility and nursing beds have been identified as a critical need for this neighborhood it is most appropriate to look at a lease with or including a nursing home operator. The local elected officials, Community Board and Neighbors to Save Rivington House have engaged in good faith negotiations with Slate Property Group [on behalf of China Vanke and Adam America]. We were given to understand we were negotiating for a portion or all of the building to be returned to the community for use for nursing home beds. Because of that understanding, we have led an extensive search for providers, some of whom have great interest to create a model long-term care nursing home. The proposed uses from Mount Sinai that we’ve heard would not help those in desperate need of nursing home housing (a long-term nursing home bed is somebody’s home). Going forward, we expect our elected representatives, community board, Mount Sinai and Slate Property Group to support a meeting to help restore faith in any potential process involving the future use of Rivington House.
The Allure Group, a for-profit nursing home operator snapped up the building in 2015 for $28 million. It then resold the property for $116 million after the city administration agreed to lift deed restrictions that required the former school building to be operated as a community health facility.
The local organization, Neighbors to Save Rivington House, is planning a vigil — “Hands Around Our House” — for Wednesday, Aug. 8.
Developers are moving forward with their own plans to turn the former nursing home into luxury condos. In the end, no one in city government or the private sector paid a real price for lifting deed restrictions on the former public school building (except for the Lower East Side community, of course).
Here’s part of the press release put out by Neighbors to Save Rivington House:
On Wednesday, August 8th from 4-7 p.m., Neighbors to Save Rivington House, along with many supporting community organizations, elected officials and individuals, will take action to demand the return of Rivington House, a 219-bed skilled nursing facility, at 45 Rivington St. Neighbors and community leaders will join on August 8th to physically surround the building in a solemn direct action intended to send a message of resolve and community unity in demanding the return of the building. The action will also remind the community of our desperate need for skilled nursing beds throughout the neighborhood. This is a call for all of us to double down on our commitment to weaving a safety net for all vulnerable neighbors and family members in our community.
And here are some additional thoughts from K Webster, a leading member of the local advocacy group
Some wonder why after 3 1/2 years of trench warfare we don’t give up on Rivington House. We’ve heard this from many worldly-wise people: “Rivington House is a lost cause.”
As if we don’t live in the world. As if we don’t notice the daily insult of monstrous acts that happen with what looks like impunity.
Well, we do live in this world and have seen plenty of shitty things.
In my corner of it, my local park, I’ve held a nineteen year old in my lap as he faded from this life, murdered in a fight. I watch homeless men, good men who often help out here, be discounted, reviled or treated like they should be eradicated from this world. I cared for my mom, a brilliant working class Irishwoman who knew countless poems by heart, as her mind slowly eroded from Alzheimers disease. I heard the last residents of Rivington House say farewell to the M’Finda Garden with wheelchairs, crutches or canes saying their respectful goodbye: “We are really going to miss this place”. They were mostly poor, of color, ill, and broken, and supremely human people who were welcomed into this neighborhood, despite the still rampant terror of AIDS/HIV.
Each of us has our own list of people we love and all of us have noticed the people we pass on the street who are simply trying to stay alive in this imperfect world. We see them as they suffer needlessly while we feel (and often are) helpless to shift it.
I’ll say this, even though it’s blasphemous in a struggle: This fight for Rivington House isn’t the most important fight right now.
But. It is a chance to decide not to walk by here where we live and do nothing.
In a “hopeless” fight we are offered resignation or compromise or to “look away” or to focus solely on our own close circle of ‘needs’ or ‘people’ or to make money off of it. I’m not sure which is more soul destroying.
But if we pay attention and we don’t give in to those feelings, sometimes things can happen. They may not seem big, but they are.
Tenement Museum staffers come every week to clean a feces-riddled section of Sara Roosevelt Park. It’s a hopeless task (60+ homeless guests every night and no bathroom from Grand Street to Houston). This month, one of the men saw the staffers working (right after he had used a plot for a toilet). But this time, he came back and cleaned it up. Victory. For him, for us.
A man who helped rescue this park from drug dealers and pimps when it was abandoned by the city who should have been in Rivington House these past 3 years. After his wife passed, he was beset by Alzheimers (sometimes we just can’t bear to remember?). His network of friends and an extraordinary caregiver helped him hang on in his apartment until people and money wore out. To save his life he was sent to the only available nursing home bed – in Coney Island. Where, given no easy way for loved ones to get to him, he would die slowly of loneliness. But a chance conversation with a kind neighbor who just got a job at New East Side Nursing Home and we learned there was a bed! He is there now, closer to his neighborhood, being cared for brilliantly by their staff. Victory. For him, for us.
Seeing people in trouble, as vital institutional safety nets crumble, weighs on us even if we can’t bear to notice them given our own daily grinds and preoccupations.
This is how we are made to feel complicit and helpless in the damage being done in our name to the most helpless.
As family, friends and neighbors maybe all we have is our determination to care.
We are a small force in the midst of a lot of irrational momentum and it will take time to turn things, to slow things and change direction. But…
You can’t always stop mistreatment, but you can always oppose it.
You can’t always stop losing, but you can always not accept it as permanent.
And sometimes, when we act, we win a few.
Come join us on August 8th. Walk over, write your own message of resistance and care to your loved ones. If for no other reason, than that you get to say out loud that you refuse to be quietly complicit in yourown community.
We intend to triumph, but no matter what happens we will be alive in our opposition.
Victory.
 Photo by Lee Brozgol.
 Mayor de Blasio on the Lower East Side, May 2016. The state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) is apparently continuing to investigate Mayor de Blasio’s campaign finance practices, including certain aspects of the Rivington House affair.
In a story published yesterday, the Times Union reported that JCOPE is still looking into donations to the mayor’s shuttered non-profit, Campaign For One New York. Here’s more from the article:
JCOPE investigators are asking about a Sept. 28, 2015, event at City Hall restaurant in Manhattan that de Blasio attended. JCOPE is seeking information concerning discussions at the event about Rivington House, a Manhattan nursing home for people with AIDS that was sold in 2015 to a luxury condo developer after an unusual city decision to lift a deed restriction… JCOPE investigators also want information about how the mayor’s event came to be known by attendees, donors’ discussions with de Blasio about their giving to his lobbying nonprofit, and the motivations for those donations.
News stories during the past few years have highlighted the role of lobbyist James Capalino in the Rivington House transactions. Capalino represented VillageCare, Rivington House’s former owner, until October of 2014. The deed restrictions weren’t lifted until November of 2015. Capalino was a high-profile de Blasio fundraiser. JCOPE initially suspected that the mayor’s non-profit might not have reported all lobbying activity.
Last year, federal prosecutors declined to prosecute the mayor, after a lengthy investigation of his fundraising activities. The Times Union article points out that JCOPE is heavily influenced by the governor, the mayor’s top nemesis.
A spokesperson for Capalino, James Yolles, said in a statement, “It’s no secret that Jim was a supporter of Campaign for One New York’s agenda, and we are completely confident that his activities were in compliance with law.” We spoke with Capalino in 2016 about his involvement with Rivington House.
The new owners of the Rivington House building are proceeding with their luxury condo conversion. The mayor has said the deed restrictions should never have been lifted, but argued that the city has no legal means of seizing the former community facility from private developers.
 The mayor attended a town hall on the Lower East Side in June of last year. The Department of Buildings DOB) last month gave Slate Property Group the go-ahead to proceed with its luxury condo conversion at Rivington House. But local activists (Neighbors to Save Rivington House) have not given up their campaign to block the transformation of the former Lower East Side nursing home.
Earlier this week, they got a boost from Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and City Councilmember Margaret Chin. The elected officials Monday sent a letter to Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, urging her to put a hold on any DOB permits at 45 Rivington St. Here’s part of that letter:
As has been stated numerous times by our offices, the loss of a skilled nursing home facility at this site has been a devastating blow to our constituents, and we remain deeply concerned about a flawed City process that has paved the way for the closure, sale, and now potential conversion of this building into luxury condos. As the elected representatives of the community, we demand a clear and transparent process for the future of this site.
During a town hall meeting in June of last year, de Blasio reluctantly agreed to set up a meeting between the new owners and concerned members of the community about potentially creating a new community facility in the building. The mayor has repeatedly called his administration’s decision to lift deed restrictions at Rivington House a mistake, but has contended there’s no legal way to take the building back from private owners. Brewer and Chin wrote:
Eight months have passed since that promise (of a meeting), and the property owner has been granted the ability to conduct structural probes and tests, and has filed plans with the DOB to convert the building; however there has been no meeting with the public about the future of the site. This is especially disheartening since we have yet to see a replacement-in-kind of nursing beds or the full allocation of the proceeds from the sale price to the community. Our offices are moving forward to schedule this meeting, and urge you to join us.
Rivington House, 45 Rivington St. The administration has claimed that a proposed senior housing project on Norfolk Street and a new nursing wing at Gouverneur Health help make up for the loss of Rivington House’s 219 nursing home beds. But as we have previously reported, those projects were in-the-works long before the Rivington House scandal broke. The city pocketed $16 million from the former property owner, the Allure Group, in exchange for dropping the deed restrictions.
The elected officials made the case to Glen that the historic former school building is ill-suited for a condominium conversion:
…we remain convinced that the proposed use is inappropriate for the site. The existing building was built as a school at the turn of the twentieth century, and predates the existing zoning regulations. As such, the site was never contemplated for permanent residential use. Additionally, the Lower East Side rezoning (080397(A) ZMM) adopted in 2008 explicitly reinforces the built context. While the rezoning does allows for conversions, they cannot create new non-compliances. We lack confidence that the developer will comply with this rule; in general, we believe the conversion rules unreasonably burden local infrastructure and day-to-day services such as on-site garbage collection.
Slate filed DOB applications for the condo conversion on Feb. 9. A Buildings Department spokesperson told The Lo-Down last month that the applications will go through the agency’s plan exam process, where they will be reviewed for compliance with the city’s construction codes and zoning regulations. The work permit was rejected Feb. 15 because drawings were incomplete.
 Photo from Dr. Mitchell Katz’s Twitter. There was evidently a ribbon cutting ceremony yesterday at New York Health + Hospitals/Gouverneur for 60 new nursing home beds. The de Blasio administration has portrayed the expansion at the longtime Lower East Side medical facility as part of its efforts to make up for the loss of the Rivington House nursing home.
The ceremony, which doubled as a Lunar New Year celebration, was attended by local elected officials. According to various social media feeds, City Councilmember Margaret Chin, City Councilmember Carlina Rivera, State Sen. Brian Kavanagh, State Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou and Deputy Manhattan Borough President Matthew Washington all took part. They were joined by Mitchell Katz, president of NYC Health + Hospitals. On Twitter, Katz said, “So pleased to join in ribbon-cutting @NYCHealthSystem Gouverneur to celebrate 60 new #SkilledNursing beds in beautiful space offering much needed care for the community.”
On Jan. 9, the administration announced that the new skilled nursing home beds would be created at 227 Madison St. The Gouverneur nursing center is a 295-bed facility within a larger medical complex that underwent a multi-million renovation several years ago. The new beds are located on floors of Gouverneur that were previously unused. Administration officials said 75 health care professionals would be hired to handle the expansion.
The former Rivington House nursing home, with 219 beds, is now being converted to luxury condos. Referencing the city’s decision to drop deed restrictions on the Rivington House building, the mayor said last month, “This neighborhood must be made whole for a broken City process that resulted in the sale of a critical health care facility.” In the same announcement, the city acknowledged that it was reneging on a promise to build senior housing on Pike Street. It also claimed that a new senior housing project on Norfolk Street was part of the Rivington House restitution plan, even though that project had previously been announced by private developers.
Local activists have been pressing local elected officials for help in holding the administration accountable. Even through the condo conversion is already occurring, they want the mayor to follow through on a promise to engage Rivington House’s new owners about creating a new health care facility in the Rivington Street building.
 Photo from Sen. Brian Kavanagh’s Twitter. 
 Mayor de Blasio with former First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris, November 2017. Photo: NYC Mayor’s Office. Ricardo Morales, a central figure in the Rivington House debacle, has filed a lawsuit against the de Blasio administration.
The former deputy commissioner at the city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) was fired in February of last year. Morales’ signature appeared on a document authorizing the lifting of deed restrictions at the former Lower East Side nursing home. That agreement set the stage for the luxury condo conversion of the longtime community facility at 45 Rivington St.
News of he suit was first reported by the Post and the Daily News.
In the lawsuit, Morales claims his civil rights were violated. He accuses top administration officials of plotting to deliver “knowingly false” testimony under oath at a City Council hearing to conceal their role in the Rivington House scandal. Morales claims he was fired and escorted from his office “like a common criminal” as retaliation for complaining about interference from City Hall in the Rivington House matter.
Court documents describe a May 11, 2016 meeting that involved Morales, DCAS Commissioner Lisette Camillo, and Jon Paul Lupo (a top mayoral aide). According to Morales, Lupo pressured Camillo to testify at a City Council oversight hearing that the mayor’s office had nothing to do with the lifting of deed restrictions. “Lupo controlled the meeting,” the lawsuit claims. “Consistent with the narrative that was emanating from City Hall, Lupo stated that DCAS was solely responsible for what had happened with Rivington and he made it clear that that was to be the narrative to be delivered at the City Council hearing.” It was later revealed that multiple high ranking mayoral aides were deeply involved in the matter.
Morales said he protested the efforts to lay blame for the deed changes on DCAS. Lupo, said Morales, was “outraged” and told Camillo that she would be the only city official to deliver testimony. In the end, the allegedly false narrative was not presented by Camillo at the hearing.
Moarles’ firing happened on the same day that the mayor underwent a four hour interview by federal prosecutors. At the time, a city spokesperson said DCAS was “moving forward with several leadership changes and some restructuring designed to improve our efficiency and performance… These changes have been in the works for some time and have nothing to do with the mayor’s or City Hall’s cooperation with the U.S. Attorney.”
But the lawsuit alleges, “Firing Morales had nothing to do with going in a different direction and everything to do with sending a message to all the city’s dedicated civil servants about what happens if you oppose the personal interests of de Blasio, even if your opposition is guided by legal and ethical obligations.”
A mayoral spokesperson, Freddi Goldstein, responded to the lawsuit, saying, “As we’ve said 5,000 times, the administration acted appropriately.”
Rivington House, 45 Rivington St. We have known the day was coming, but it won’t soften the blow for many Lower East Side residents still seething over the Rivington House fiasco.
This afternoon, Slate Property Group filed work permits with the Department of Buildings for its luxury condo conversion of the former nursing home.
A stop work order has been in place at 45 Rivington St. since April of 2016, although the city allowed the developers to perform “exploratory” work on sections of the historic former school building. The renovation project was on hold while various agencies investigated the controversial $116 million sale of the onetime community facility. That sale was, of course, made possible by the de Blasio administration’s decision to lift deed restrictions on the building for $16 million.
Last month, State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman reached a settlement with the Allure Group, Rivington House’s former owner. So now, it appears, the luxury conversion is back on track. A spokesperson for the Department of Buildings tells The Lo-Down that the applications submitted today will go through the agency’s plan exam process, where they will be reviewed for compliance with the city’s construction codes and zoning regulations. A partial stop work order remains in place, but DOB can rescind it as needed to accommodate approved work.
There’s not much detail available just yet in the online file. The application simply notes that the owners “are filing for renovation of the existing building and conversion to residential use.” The total square footage of the project is about 122,000 square feet. A lounge and wine cellar are planned in the basement. The owner rep listed on the permit is Martin Nussbaum of the Slate Property Group.
It first became publicly known in February of 2016 that Slate, China Vanke and Adam America Real Estate had acquired the building. At the time, they said about 100 luxury apartments would be created in the former AIDS nursing home. While the mayor said his administration should never have lifted deed restrictions, there was no legal recourse to reverse the sale. Over the summer, he promised City Councilmember Margaret Chin that he would try to set up a meeting with the new owners, in the hopes that they might consider a community use for the building. That never happened.
The agreement with the attorney general requires Allure to hand over $1.25 million to local non-profits and to open a new health care facility on the Lower East Side. The city recently announced it would replace 60 of the 219 nursing home beds at Rivington House (those beds will be located at Gouverneur Health). The mayor’s office reneged on a promise to create a senior housing and health care facility on Pike Street.
UPDATE 5:29 p.m A spokesperson for Councilmember Chin, Marian Guerra, said tonight, “Our office is actively looking for ways to fight the conversion. Rivington House has been a community facility for decades, and we are not giving up on efforts to create a 21st century nursing facility in the building.”
UPDATE 2/10 Here’s a statement from Neighbors to Save Rivington House:
Once again, the Rivington House community has been forsaken. Our Mayor promised the Council Member he would call a meeting with the buyers to encourage them to consider returning the building to those in greater need of it. We can no longer wait for him. Nor can those who need those 219 beds, who were already struggling in defiance of crushing circumstances. We are now asking other electeds to step in: to invite Slate Property, Adam America and China Vanke to address the hole created when people here were denied this housing. Whether the building was taken by incompetence, corruption, opportunism, or in pursuit of profits is irrelevant to those in desperate straits. The buyers are not in financial need – one is the richest real estate company in the world. They intend their clients to live in this neighborhood. But there can never be a welcome here until work is done to resolve what happened to Rivington House. Nor can anyone afford to give into defeatism in a time when the worst of human damage seems ascendant. Our community has done important things because we refuse to quit on fighting for our most marginalized members. And we are not done.
Rivington House. The state attorney general has decided to award grants totaling $1.25 million to six Lower East Side non-profit organizations as part of a settlement with the Allure Group. Members of Community Board 3’s Health, Seniors and Human Services Committee last week expressed displeasure with the process used to pick the local recipients.
Last month, the attorney general’s office announced an agreement with Allure, in the aftermath of the Rivington House scandal. After the city administration inexplicably lifted deed restrictions on the former nursing home facility, Allure sold the property to luxury condo developers. The for-profit nursing home operator profited $72 million.
The money was earmarked for organizations that, “provide healthcare services to vulnerable members of the community.” After a review by the Charities Bureau of the Attorney General’s office, grants were awarded to: Grand Street Settlement, Henry Street Settlement, University Settlement, Community Healthcare Network (Catherine Abate Health Center), Chinese American Planning Council and the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center.
At last week’s meeting, District Manager Susan Stetzer said she conveyed concerns to the AG’s office from CB3’s executive committee about the lack of a public procedure for selecting grant awardees. While the organizations selected are widely respected, Stetzer pointed out there was no opportunity for other worthy groups to compete for the funds. A resolution approved by the committee, highlighted the lack of transparency in the funding decisions and requested an in-person explanation from the AG’s office at an upcoming public meeting.
Amy Spitalnick, the attorney general’s press secretary told The Lo-Down, “We are pleased that after a careful and comprehensive process, we are able to award these recovered funds to several highly regarded local organizations committed to serving vulnerable New Yorkers on the Lower East Side.” She said the groups selected all have complementary missions to the former Rivington House nursing home. “By funding these high performing local organizations,” Spitalnick added, “we can ensure that every dollar will be used to serve the community’s critical health care needs.”
 Melissa Aase led a community meeting regarding Rivington House last year. Melissa Aase, executive director of University Settlement, was present at last Thursday’s meeting. Her organization received an offer from the attorney general’s office for a $200,000 grant. Aase has been an outspoken advocate for returning the Rivington House building to the local community, so she was surprised to get the phone call. Several people mentioned during the committee meeting that the grants are relatively small compared with the loss of one of the Lower East Side’s last remaining nursing homes. Aase said she hopes to get together with the other grant recipients sometime soon to consider pooling their resources. The money, she suggested, might be used for “a robust community process” to develop a local health care needs plan.
Also on hand for the meeting was K Webster, a leader of Neighbors to Save Rivington House, a local advocacy group. After the meeting, the organization put out a statement in support of the attorney general’s office. It read, in part: “…The AG’s Office fought hard to bring as much benefit as legally possible to confront the mess that was left here by the dealings of the Allure Group and the lack of competent oversight. The settlement makes clear that the AG’s Office went to the mat on this – within what was legally permissible.”
There was also discussion about another aspect of the settlement agreement, which requires Allure to open a, “new skilled nursing facility or other healthcare facility primarily providing long-term care to the elderly or disabled.”
K Webster said she heard last week from the Allure Group’s Joel Landau, who is hoping to line up community support for the new nursing home. The statement from Neighbors to Save Rivington House highlighted just how difficult it’s going to be for Allure to rebuild any kind of trust on the Lower East Side:
This company betrayed the people they were entrusted to care for. Regardless of “letters of the law” they made promises to people. They chose to make enormous profit instead of fulfilling their moral and human obligation to those who were made vulnerable by illness, disability, poverty, racism and the stigma of AIDS/HIV. They have much to atone for if they are, as the settlement’s stipulations/oversight requirements posit, to return here to build and run a nursing home.
It’s a sentiment that was expressed by others at last week’s meeting. Susan Stetzer recalled her past dealings with Landau. When the Rivington House scandal broke in 2016, Stetzer said Landau deceived CB3, by telling her that he’d never heard of the developer (Slate Property Group) that ultimately plunked down $116 million for Rivington House. On Tuesday evening, Stetzer said, “The man outright lied… When he lied to me he was lying to the community board.”
A representative of the AG’s office is scheduled to take part in a meeting regarding the Rivington House settlement at the Manhattan Borough President’s office later this week.
45 Rivington St. 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.
 30 Pike St. The de Blasio administration is backing away from a commitment made more than a year ago to replace Rivington House with a new senior housing and health care complex at 30 Pike St.
The promise came during a City Council oversight hearing in September of 2016. As top officials were being grilled about their inexplicable decision to lift deed restrictions at the former nursing home, they announced plans for the new facility. The administration said the new project would pave “the way for the return of health care lost as a result of a mishandled deed modification at Rivington House.” The mayor committed to build at least 100 apartments at 30 Pike, a site controlled by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection. A Request for Proposals (RFP) was supposed to go out last year, but it never materialized.
Today, the administration is backtracking, contending that the 30 Pike St. location isn’t feasible for the proposed development. This morning, Politico alluded to the city’s decision in its morning email (the full story is available only to Politico Pro subscribers):
The de Blasio administration has picked a new location to fund the senior citizen housing it promised in exchange for botching the transfer of a nursing home on the Lower East Side… The administration now plans to subsidize apartments for (100) tenants near the site of the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Synagogue, a landmarked property on Norfolk Street that was demolished after being destroyed in a fire last year, sources said.
 Workers continue to dismantle unstable portions of Beth Hamedrash Hagadol on Norfolk Street. As we have previously reported, a development plan is in the works on a parcel behind Beth Hamedrash Hagadol at 50 Norfolk St. It’s owned by the Chinese American Planning Council. The new residential tower is being developed by the Gotham Organization, utilizing air rights from the synagogue. Workers have partially demolished Beth Hamedrash Hagadol, which was ravaged by fire in May of last year.
It should be noted that the project at 50 Norfolk St. was always envisioned as a senior housing complex (with some market rate housing, as well). The city’s efforts to portray the Norfolk Street proposal as a replacement for more than 200 nursing home beds at Rivington House will not be warmly received by the local community.
On Friday, State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a settlement agreement with the Allure Group, Rivington House’s former owner. Among other points, it requires the for-profit nursing home operator to open a new nursing facility on the Lower East Side. It hasn’t been announced where that new project will be located.
We’ll have more details as they become available today. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development hasn’t responded to our requests for comment about this issue in the past several days, but indicated this morning that a press release would be forthcoming today.
UPDATE 11:13 p.m. We now have the press release from the mayor’s office. The new Norfolk Street project will include 88 units of senior affordable housing. In addition, the project from the Gotham Organization will create 400 units of mixed-income housing on the parcel behind Beth Hamedrash Hagadol. The complex will include a new headquarters for the Chinese American Planning Council, neighborhood retail and space for the synagogue.
The city is also announcing today that it will create 60 new skilled nursing facility beds at Gouverneur Health on Madison Street. Gouverneur is hiring 75 new staff members for the expanded facility, which is expected to be up-and-running by April.
In a statement, the mayor said, “This plan is a reflection of our unwavering commitment to the Lower East Side, the seniors who built this amazing and diverse community, and the immediacy of their needs. This neighborhood must be made whole for a broken City process that resulted in the sale of a critical health care facility.”
As we pointed out this morning, the new units on Norfolk Street were already in the works. The commitment for new nursing home beds at Gouverneur is new, but the administration is not delivering on the 100 units of senior housing promised on Pike Street.
Today’s press release included the following statement from City Council member Margaret Chin:
After years of shrinking affordable housing and healthcare options for our seniors, we are finally beginning to turn the tide. This plan is an important part of our efforts to allow elderly New Yorkers the ability to grow old in a caring, safe place in the neighborhoods they call home. I thank Mayor de Blasio, Deputy Mayor Shorris and HPD for following through on their commitment to increase the availability of healthcare and affordable housing for seniors in desperate need.
Tomorrow evening, the developers will outline their plans for the Norfolk Street site at a meeting of Community Board 3 (6:30 p.m./184 Eldridge St.) There will be a 10 story building perched above what’s left of Beth Hamedrash Hagadol and a 30-story tower on the parcel behind the synagogue. A total of 488 units will be included in the two buildings. In addition to the 88 senior units, there will be 100 permanently affordable apartments.
The project will go through ULURP, the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, which includes advisory roles for the community board and borough president. The ULURP must be approved by the City Council.
45 Rivington St. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman this afternoon announced a settlement with the Allure Group after a lengthy investigation of the Rivington House debacle on the Lower East Side. It requires the for-profit nursing home company to open a new facility on the LES and to pay $1.25 million to Lower East Side non-profit groups.
Allure sold the former nursing home for AIDS patients in February of 2016 for $116 million after the city inexplicably lifted deed restrictions on the building at 45 Rivington St. The new owners are planning to convert the property into luxury condos.
The AG’s investigation covered the closures of Rivington House, as well as the CABS Nursing Home in Brooklyn. In a statement, Schneiderman said:
The processes that led to the closure of Rivington House and CABS never should have happened – this settlement ensures they won’t happen again, while addressing critical healthcare gaps in the impacted communities. We’re requiring Allure to open new healthcare facilities in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side, and make major improvements to its Harlem facility, while also providing $1.25 million to non-profits serving vulnerable New Yorkers.
In a press release, this is how the attorney general described Allure’s new commitments on the Lower East Side:
The Allure Group will create a Lower East Side healthcare facility at a new location to fill healthcare gaps caused by the closure of Rivington House. Allure is required to fully fund a new skilled nursing facility or other healthcare facility primarily providing long-term care to the elderly or disabled; there will be a restriction on the future sale or closure of that facility for at least eight years from commencement of services. Pursuant to the agreement, Allure will also pay $1.25 million to Lower East Side non-profit organizations that provide healthcare services to vulnerable members of the community.
There were no details offered regarding the number of beds that must be included in a new facility, where it will be located or which local non-profits will be receiving funding. The settlement also requires Allure to pay $400,000 in penalties under the Not-for-Profit Corporation Law and $350,000 to cover investigative costs.
In a related settlement, three members of the Rivington House board of directors (Heshey Licht, Ben-zion Scharf and Aaron Porges) will be barred from serving on other boards for at least five years.
The attorney general is requiring the appointment of a new independent compliance consultant who will report to the New York State Department of Health. According to the AG, “Allure will be required to inform the Department of Health about circumstances that might lead to the closure of any Allure Group facility.”
UPDATE 5:21 p.m. Allure’s attorney, Andrew Lavander, provided the following statement to The Real Deal:
(Allure Group is) pleased that, following a careful review, both the New York Attorney General and the Department of Health have not only approved The Allure Group’s acquisition of the Harlem Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, but are encouraging and supporting Allure’s future investments in healthcare facilities in the Lower East Side and in Brooklyn.
Lavander noted that, in the settlement agreement, Allure did not admit or deny any of the allegations made by the attorney general.
UPDATE 6:16 p.m. Here’s a statement from Neighbors to Save Rivington House, an organization advocating for the return of the building to the local community:
We are grateful for the rigorous work that the AG’s Office undertook. Countless hours and much know-how was put to this effort to get long-range justice for some of New York State’s most vulnerable people. We are also grateful for the level of compensation that all of these affected low-income and/or of color communities will garner. And that the Allure Group will be under scrutiny due to past practices. And, importantly, it is problematic to invite Allure to run another facility – anywhere. But this is a systemic New York State-wide issue that allows a business like Allure to be endorsed as an organization with “character and competence” by the Public Health and Health Planning Council. That is the larger fight to end the preying upon vulnerable NYers for profit. We will continue to advocate for the meeting with the buyers Adam America, Slate Property Group, and China Vanke promised by the Mayor to our local Council Member. Because Allure was just one group of men who profited off of people who had little ability to fight back. Why? A longtime neighbor and community activist, who lives around the corner from Rivington House will likely be forced to move far from his network of friends this month. He’ll end his days with few visits. It keeps the reality of the damage caused here fresh.
The settlement agreement summarizes the AG’s investigation and spells out Allure’s commitments.
It refers to the city’s decision to lift deed restrictions at 45 Rivington St. after Allure agreed to pay a $16 million fee:
As detailed in a report by the New York City Department of Investigation, City officials, including high-level officials at City Hall and DCAS, were aware of the deed restriction removal months in advance, yet raised no objection or took any step to ensure that the property would continue to serve the community or a public purpose.
Many people in the local community have hoped that the AG would be able to find a legal means of forcing Slate Property Group, the new majority owner of 45 Rivington St., to return the building. But the document from Schneiderman’s office states that Slate’s, “title to the property as a bona fide purchaser is not subject to effective legal challenge.” It then goes on to essentially make a case for the settlement agreement: “The proceeds of the sale of the Rivington Street property are sufficient to fund projects in the public interest.”
As part of the agreement, Allure has agreed to dissolve the non-profit board that was set up to acquire the former community facility. It will then transfer $1,250,000, “to one or more charitable organizations, approved by the Attorney General, that provide healthcare services to low income residents of the Lower East Side.”
Here’s what the agreement says regarding the establishment of a new health care facility:
The Allure Group shall use commercially reasonable efforts to establish (including by purchase of an existing facility from a third party) and operate a skilled nursing facility or other healthcare facility primarily providing long-term care to the elderly or disabled, or such other facility as licensed in the discretion of the Commissioner of Health, at a location south of East 7th Street and east of Broadway to Houston Street and south of Houston Street and east of West Broadway in the Borough of Manhattan.
On Friday, World AIDS Day, local activists held an early evening vigil at Rivington House to recall the loss of the former nursing home for AIDS patients. The longtime community facility was shuttered two years ago this month when the city lifted deed restrictions and the property was sold to luxury condo developers.
A stop work order remains in place at 45 Rivington St., although Mayor de Blasio said he sees no way to reclaim the building for the community. A local group, Neighbors to Save Rivington House, is undeterred, vowing to do everything humanly possible to prevent the condo conversion.
On Friday night, people gathered on the sidewalk, holding candles and telling stories about the former residents of Rivington House. “As a community,” said University Settlement Executive Director Melissa Aase, “we welcomed Rivington House at the height of the AIDS crisis when other communities would not. As a community, we built ties with the staff and residents and built a stronger community as a result. As more of our neighbors age in place where we desperately want them to be with us, we will need more care, not less care.”
City Council member Margaret Chin attended the vigil, telling those assembled, “I will continue to fight. I am not giving up. It’s not a done deal, and we still have hope.” During a town hall meeting over the summer, the mayor promised Chin he would try to set up a meeting with the property owners (China Vanke, Slate Property Group and Adam America Real Estate). She hopes to persuade the developers to create a new community health care facility in the building. “As long as I’m still here as the Council member,” said Chin, “we are going to fight to make sure we get this building back… (The mayor) promised to set up the meeting with the developers and I’m still holding him to that promise.”
The mayor’s World AIDS Day schedule took him to Kings Theater in Brooklyn for a commemoration and to the West Village, where a new memorial was dedicated in the shadow of the former St. Vincent’s Hospital. The city has vowed to eradicate AIDS by 2020.
Rivington House’s former operator, VillageCare, lobbied to drop the deed restrictions and sold the Lower East Side building, saying there was no need for the treatment facility. VillageCare participated in Friday’s ceremony at Kings Theater.
Last week, the mayor’s first deputy mayor, Anthony Shorris, announced he would not be staying on for de Blasio’s second term. Shorris, who was at the center of the Rivington House scandal that dogged the city administration during he past couple of years, said, “I made dozens of decisions a day for four years. (The lifting of deed restrictions at Rivington House) was a mistake. It shouldn’t have happened. We found it and we fixed it and moved on.”
 Mayor de Blasio delivers remarks at Kings Theater. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office.
Coming up on Friday, Dec. 1, local activists will mark World AIDS Day and the two year anniversary of the closing of Rivington House.
The former nursing home for AIDS patients was shuttered by the Allure Group in December of 2015. At the same time, it became known that deed restrictions were lifted on the longtime community facility, clearing the way for the sale and luxury condo conversion of the building at 45 Rivington St. A local group, Neighbors to Save Rivington House, has been battling against the condo developers ever since.
A vigil will take place on Friday evening from 6-7:30 p.m. in front of the Rivington House building. Here’s part of the message that will be delivered during the vigil:
We gather by candlelight to remember the former residents of Rivington House who lost their homes and their community when the facility was closed. We miss our beloved neighbors and the community we built together. We gather to honor them, and all our many neighbors—far too many—who faced and lost their lives to HIV/AIDS in the past forty years. And we remain committed to returning Rivington House to the people who need supportive housing and nursing care, whether due to illness, old age, or injury that prevents them from being able to live alone.
Mayor de Blasio has said repeatedly that he sees no legal way to take the building back. A “stop work order” remains in place while investigations into the deed reversals drag on.
Recently, a Department of Buildings liaison informed local elected officials that the developers were expected to resume “structural survey work.” At a town hall meeting over the summer, Buildings Department Commissioner Rick Chandler said that even the exploratory work had been put on hold.
During the town hall, the mayor reluctantly agreed to set up a meeting with the new property owners. City Council member Margaret Chin said she hoped a meeting would help persuade them to “do the right thing.” There’s been no word from the mayor’s office about scheduling that meeting.
 Margaret Chin attended a rally at Rivington House in April of 2016. The other day we mentioned a “fact check” in City Limits which examined several claims from a campaign flyer distributed by a group called “Lower East Siders for Christopher Marte.” Today we’re taking a closer look at one of those claims.
The organization falsely states in the flyer that, City Council member Margaret Chin, “refused to halt the sale of Rivington House, displacing AIDS patients in favor of luxury condos.”
As City Limits points out:
It was the De Blasio administration that permitted the sale of Rivington House to a condo developer, not Chin.
The story then cites our coverage of Rivington House:
The Lo-Down reports that during (2015)—when (the) Allure Group was duping the public—Chin played a large role “in efforts to keep the facility open under the ownership of a new nursing home operator.” Lower East Siders for Christopher Marte argues Chin should have used her influence to prevent the nonprofit from selling to Allure to begin with—but no one knew, at the time, that Allure would completely betray its word, and it was a private transaction, so she would have had limited control to begin with.
Let’s review a bit more closely what’s actually in the public record.
July 2014: Rivington House owner VillageCare announced plans to close Rivington House.
August 2014: Council member Chin said she had begun conversations with VillageCare about the future of the building. Chin said she was opposed to any luxury redevelopment plan.
October 2014: Council member Chin said she was working to make sure Rivington House remained a skilled nursing facility. She had been made aware that deed changes would be necessary in order to permit the Allure Group to operate the facility as a for-profit nursing home.
February 2015: The Allure Group took over the facility.
June 2015: A public hearing was held to lift all deed restrictions, freeing the Allure Group of any obligation to operate the building as a community healthcare facility. Neither the City Council nor Community Board 3 was advised of the public hearing. Five months later, Allure paid the city $16 million and the deed restrictions were lifted.
December 2015: The Lo-Down reported exclusively that the deed restrictions were no longer in place and that neighbors had heard from Slate Property Group, which was planning a luxury conversion of the nursing home. Margaret Chin later said that this was the first time she heard about the deed change.
February 2016: News broke that Rivington House had been sold for $116 million. It later became known that the contract between Allure and Slate had been signed in May of 2015.
March 2016: NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer launched an investigation of the Rivington House matter, igniting one of the biggest scandals of the de Blasio administration.
So what’s the bottom line? It’s clear that elected officials on the Lower East Side, Margaret Chin among them, were in the dark about the deed changes until it was too late. She was well aware, however, that deed changes would eventually be required to allow Allure, a for-profit company to operate Rivington House in the long term. Lots of people, including the Council member, likely wish they’d asked more questions starting in mid-2015 about how those deed changes would be handled. But there’s a big difference between saying that, perhaps, more questions should have been asked of city agencies and blaming the local Council member for something that was purposely concealed from her.
 Christopher Marte announced his candidacy April 29 in front of Rivington House. The local organization fighting for the return of Rivington House, issued a statement the other day. The missive from Neighbors to Save Rivington House, read, in part, “It has been both egregious and infuriating that both of the men running against Margaret Chin (Marte and Aaron Foldenauer) have used the eviction of people living with AIDS and the taking of Rivington House from the neighborhood to opportunistically and falsely target the Councilwoman as the cause of its demise.”
[It should be noted that one of the primary leaders of Neighbors to Save Rivington House, K Webster, is a strong Margaret Chin supporter.]
At a June town hall meeting on the Lower East Side, Council member Chin asked Mayor de Blasio to set up a meeting with China Vanke, one of the owners of the Rivington House building. “Maybe you can invite the people who purchased that building,” she suggested, “(to) come in and talk with us and see if we can build a model, 21st Century nursing facility for our seniors, with special needs.”
There has been no word from the administration about that meeting. Neighbors to Save Rivington House has started a postcard campaign, urging the mayor to “call the meeting.”
Meanwhile, Christopher Marte has questioned Council member Chin’s decision to endorse the mayor in December of 2016, when so many questions remained about his bungling of the Rivington House matter. He has, however, disavowed the flyer from Lower East Siders for Christopher Marte, saying it “doesn’t accurately represent his views.”
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