Harlem Nursing Home Awaits Decision on its Sale
The Greater Harlem Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center, a 200-bed facility on West 138 Street, is seeking a judge’s approval to sell its assets to another health care provider, despite opposition from the state attorney general.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been investigating the would-be buyer, the for-profit Brooklyn health care provider the Allure Group, because it has a history of turning its nursing facilities into luxury residential buildings.
After acquiring Rivington House on the Lower East Side and the CABS Nursing Home in Brooklyn, Allure closed both facilities and discharged all patients within a year, according to a letter the attorney general office sent the nursing home’s attorney. In July, Schneiderman asked the New York State Supreme Court to block the Harlem nursing home’s sale to Allure, based on his office’s investigation.
The Harlem nursing home in turn sued the attorney general in Supreme Court.
“It’s just submitted to the judge for decision,” Lisa Linden, the nursing home’s spokesperson, said via email, regarding the lawsuit’s status.
At the nursing home, staff members reacted to the ongoing conflict. One employee for more than 20 years said the sale would concern her “if that’s something that would affect your income” because the home closed. “But we’re assured that’s not really happening,” she said.
The employee declined to reveal her name, worrying about risking her job. But she hopes the sale goes through smoothly. “If this is something that will enhance the facility,” she said, “I don’t think you will be against it.” Allure has done a good job in the two years it has operated the home, she added.
Last Thursday, Allure told the Uptowner it had signed a new agreement with employees of the nursing home, preserving benefits including sick leave and vacation. “Normally when new owners come in, all employee contracts are reviewed and potentially renegotiated at terms that may be less advantageous to employees,” said Joel Landau, managing partner of the Allure Group.
Joyce McCallin, receptionist at the nursing home, said that 85 employees came to the meeting to hear about the new agreement. “They’re very happy,” she said.
However, a recreational therapist who had previously worked at Rivington House for 20 years fears that what happened there will be repeated in Harlem.
The state “did the right thing,” he said. “This organization, they are for-profit. They want to make money.”
Tonya Lee, 41, an accountant whose 86-year-old grandmother with dementia lives in the nursing home, is concerned, too.
“We should be informed…they can’t just move people. My grandmother has been in Harlem since 1930s,” Lee said. “If they don’t give me any information, I will be calling to find out what are the options, what are the possibilities, what might happen. In an event that if the sale goes through, what could change?”
Neil A. Steiner, an attorney for the Allure Group, responded to patients’ and employees’ concern via email.
“Allure has invested millions of dollars to upgrade the facility and bring it to five-star status, has added approximately 25 licensed beds while also increasing the occupancy to near-capacity, and has committed to continue operating this much-needed facility for years to come,” Steiner wrote. “If Allure’s purchase is nevertheless rejected and Greater Harlem is forced to close, it will be a tremendous loss for all constituencies.”
New Gym at Harlem Nursing Center (Photo by Kawala Xie)
In latest action in the case, the attorney general filed an affirmation opposing a motion the nursing home sought to allow it to proceed with the sale. The affirmation argued that the nursing home has not demonstrated that the sale would be “fair and reasonable,” and charged that Allure will not maintain it as a non-profit facility.
This conflict dates back several years. In 2014, the Allure Group told the state health department that it would continue to operate the Rivington House as a health care facility after buying it, according to the attorney general’s letter. The New York Supreme Court approved the sale that year on that basis. But five months later, Allure sold the nursing home to Rivington Street Investors LLC., a real-estate developer, for $116 million. Now, the empty Rivington House will become a residential building.
Allure has maintained that it sold Rivington House because the city added a $17 million charge, to remove the restriction of keeping the facility a non-profit, according to documents it submitted to the court.
The Rivington House case may not be over. Community activists on the Lower East Side are still fighting to get the nursing home back, said Kathleen Webster, president of the Sara Roosevelt Park Coalition. “We’re waiting to find out what happened,” she said. Webster and First Deputy Mayor Anthony E. Shorris have both said a federal investigation of the Rivington House’s sale is underway.
Patients who lived in the Rivington House have been relocated to other nursing homes in the city, Webster said.
“The Allure Group has a very muddy track record,” she said. “If you want to be rich, you don’t get to do it on the back of people who have absolutely, absolutely no power.”
However, Allure refutes the claim that it relocated patients. Melissa Powell, Allure’s chief operating officer, said that most patients in Allure facilities are short-term residents. When Rivington House closed down, “the last person went home,” she said.
Similarly, in 2015, Allure bought the CABS Nursing Home in Brooklyn and “proceeded, only a few months after the sale was consummated, to make plans to close the facility and to demolish the entire building,” wrote Assistant Attorney General Sean Courtney, responding to the Harlem nursing home’s petition.
The Harlem nursing home insists in its petition that its sale to Allure does not violate the Not-For-Profit Corporation Law and should be granted, and that relying on two previous deals Allure made is “ungrounded.”
The Allure Group has operated the Greater Harlem Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center since 2014, when the nursing home first sought state approval for the sale. Allure has taken “full responsibility for the home and the safety and welfare of its residents,” lawyers said in court papers submitted to the judge, along with a 70-page exhibit to show that it has maintained the nursing home well for the past two years.
The Greater Harlem Nursing Home is the last skilled nursing facility in Harlem. Before Allure took it over, Landau said via email, “it was facing serious financial challenge and was at risk for closure.”
“Over the last two years, Allure has advanced millions of dollars to operate, renovate and upgrade Greater Harlem, which is now fully occupied,” Landau said.
“It was horrible here at one time,” McCallin said. “A lot of things are falling apart.” Now the Harlem facility has a new gym with adequate equipment, and a renovated activity room.
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