An agreement to keep a luxury retirement community open in Port Washington has collapsed, leaving 181 elderly residents looking for new housing and at risk of losing their life savings, according to officials and court documents. There is.
Prospective buyers of Harborside, formerly known as Amsterdam at Harborside, have been waiting for the necessary approvals from state regulators for more than nine months and are unsure when or if they will receive approval. The company said it did not know and canceled the $104 million sale agreement. .
However, one of the regulators, the Ministry of Health, rejected the proposed sale due to a lack of information provided by the buyer, according to an Oct. 3 letter obtained by Newsday.
“The agency complied with its regulatory responsibilities and protected vulnerable residents by denying applicants who did not follow instructions to bring their applications into compliance with state law,” agency spokeswoman Cadence Acquaviva said Monday. Ta.
What you need to know
A deal to keep the bankrupt Harborside retirement community open has collapsed, leaving elderly residents worried about losing their homes and life savings. The potential buyer, Life Care Services Communities LLC, terminated the $104 million sale in August after state regulators said: A spokesperson for the state Department of Health said it “denied” the sale earlier this month because LCS did not provide the required information.
Last year, Life Care Services Communities LLC won a federal bankruptcy court auction for Harborside. Harborside had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection against its creditors three times in the past nine years.
Iowa-based LCS is the nation’s third-largest nursing home operator. Under the court-approved sale agreement, all 140 Harborside employees will be retained, investors will repay bonds held by them and reimbursements owed to the families of deceased residents, and requests from the Department of Health and Public Health continue. It had promised to provide more than $1 million to keep the facility open. The Department of Financial Services reviewed the transaction.
However, after acquiescing to an extension to the closing date, LCS backed out on August 20, saying it could no longer wait.
Port residents and their families, whose average age is 90, are frustrated and fearful.
“There is a real possibility, even possibility, of facing imminent eviction and loss of home, community, savings and health care,” said Joyce Shapiro, president of the Harborside Residents Council.
Prospective tenants often sell their homes to pay for Harborside admission, which is determined by the size of the apartment. Part of the admission fee under one type of purchase agreement offered in 2021 ranged from $527,250 to $2.2 million, which would be refunded after the resident’s death.
Harborside has 329 units, offering different levels of care depending on the age of the resident, from independent and assisted living apartments to retirement homes and dementia care. It is one of four “continuing care retirement communities” on Long Island.
Shapiro, who lives in Harborside, said she and her neighbors “face being cruelly thrown onto the streets without adequate housing or the means to pay for medical care. Please don’t abandon us.” told the bankruptcy court judge. in Central Islip last month.
In response to Shapiro’s plea, Gov. Cathy Hochul’s spokesman Gordon Tepper said Monday, “The state will work with families to ensure their loved ones have a place to go. They have options. We will do our best,” he said. To ensure everyone has access to the care they need and deserve. ”
LCS officials said they are no longer interested in owning Harborside.
“As of early October, we are still closer to New York State Department of Health approval and commitment to our future direction than we were when we submitted our application (for approval of the Harborside acquisition) in January. “No,” said LCS spokeswoman Tracy McBee. “As a result, we are unable to continue pursuing Harborside.”
She added: “The Department of Health had multiple chances to keep this community open… Harborside residents have failed and they now face an uncertain future.”
All parties agree the transaction is complex because it involves changing Harborside’s status from nonprofit to for-profit. This is a first for a nursing home in New York.
Still, LCS executive Daniel L. Leahy accused health department regulators of operating a “Kafkaesque bureaucracy.”
The department “would rather postpone decisions indefinitely or repeatedly propose community closures rather than take steps to protect the seniors it is duty-bound to protect,” he wrote in U.S. Bankruptcy Court Allan. he wrote in a Sept. 23 memo to the judge. S. Trust.
The health department responded in an Oct. 3 letter with a six-page list of documents and other information that LCS was unable to provide.
Chief regulator Michael Heelan said LCS’s “lack of the required financial transparency” with states meant it was “impossible” to review the application and “the application will be terminated. ”, he wrote.
Time and money are running out at Harborside.
“The liquidity runway here is limited,” said Rachel Nunns, the facility’s attorney, referring to the facility’s finances. Without additional cash from LCS to pay operating costs, “(the facility) is currently in a very difficult position.”
She recalled in court the 2016 bankruptcy and subsequent sale of Westchester Meadows, a continuing care retirement community north of Valhalla that won state approval in less than 70 days.
Harborside CEO Brooke Navarre on Monday acknowledged the facility’s financial difficulties but said quality care is still being provided.
“This is extremely stressful for residents,” she said. “We strongly encourage all parties to complete the sale because it is in everyone’s best interest.”
The judge asked both parties to submit status reports on Wednesday.
James T. Madore writes about Long Island business news, including the economy, development, and government-business relations. He previously served as Albany bureau chief.
