Monday, November 21, 2011

Claim: Ben Shaoul is the new owner of Cabrini nursing home, will convert to condos


As you may have read in the Nov. 3 edition of The Villager, the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation on East Fifth Street at Avenue B is in danger of closing.

The Villager's Lesley Sussman reported that the building's current owner is an unnamed family trust, which is in the process of selling the property.

During the weekend, an anonymous reader left a comment on our post about 515 E. Fifth St., the site of a recent protest about the illegal addition to the building. The property is owned by Ben Shaoul's Magnum Management.

Per the commenter:

We just learned that Ben has purchased the property where Cabrini Home is at 542 East 5th Street from another private owner to convert to condos. The home says their lease runs out in April 2012 and they are being forced to close. Can't anyone stop him? They want to stay but so far, no dice.

According to a neighborhood source monitoring the situation, until the deal closed this past week, no one at Cabrini knew the names of the buyer. The source said that Cabrini officials have made an offer to the previously unknown new owner to pay a substantial amount of money just to receive a lease extension — in addition to more rent.

Previously, local politicians — including Assemblymember Speaker Sheldon Silver, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, City Councilmember Rosie Mendez and members of the Community Board 3 — sent a letter to attorney Kenneth Fisher, who is representing the buyer, asking for an extension of the current lease, The Villager reported.

The nonprofit, 240-bed nursing home — sponsored by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — provides health care for low-income elderly residents in the East Village. The location at Fifth Street and Avenue B opened in 1993. This location serves 240 patients and employs nearly 300 employees.

As The Villager noted, Cabrini officials have been planning to relocate to a still-unspecified site owned by the Archdiocese of New York in the next five years. However, without a lease extension and ample opportunity to find a new home, the facility is at risk of losing its state-issued operating license.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shaoul is planning to take over our entire neighborhood. Somebody step in. He has no regard for humanity. It's not just the A building or Sky East, which is now dormitory housing. It's not just the hundreds of buildings in the area that he manages. It's not just that he brutally forces people out of their homes. It's not just that he violates DOB and zoning laws with illegal construction. It's not just that people's lives have been destroyed, or that people spend years coughing up blood.....It's also that he has partnered with Westbrook Associates on 17 buildings where he has systematically cleansed most of them with a few people still hanging by a thread.

I do not think that anyone should rent from this man, as he is one of the biggest destroyers of our time.

The Westbrook/Magnum Management buildings are:

500 East 11th
504 East 12th
516 East 13th
518 East 13th
165 Avenue A
167 Avenue A
49 1/2 First Avenue
338 East 11th
340 East 11th
435 East 12th
129 First Avenue
143 First Avenue
191 Avenue A
211 Avenue A
23 Avenue A
201 East 2nd


People have to understand that a cleansing is going on right now, and we should not stand for it!

glamma said...

It's official. Ben Shaoul is the f*cking devil.

Anonymous said...

Jesus, this is beyond horrible. Jacking up rents in this way is bad enough, but to buy out a nursing home and do the same? Good lord...

Shawn said...

Ben Shaoul you are inhuman, sir. Who can throw a bunch of grandma's and grandpa's out of their home?

My god.

nygrump said...

What is the bank that is sponsoring this removal of our most fragile senior citizens? These skum ag realtors never pay out of their own pockets, they leverage the property they already have leveraged to get more leverage against old and sick and crippled people. They're as bad or worse than the FBI-created terrorists the media always gets into a lather over

Lindsay said...

Ugh, this is disturbing

evflip said...

In addition to the Westbrook/Magnum partnerships, there is also the new incarnation; Meadow Partners/Fortune East. Meadow Partners was established in 2009 by Jeffrey Kaplan, a Westbrook big-wig and, I believe, his team is comprised of some other Westbrook alumni. Mr. Shaoul is running under the Fortune East moniker. Same sh*t, different day. Some of their buildings are:

195 East 4th
199 East 4th
201 East 4th
203 East 4th
118 East 4th
120 East 4th
AND I think
The building on the corner of E3rd and 1st Ave where The Bean used to be.
Anyone know of any others?
And yes! Let's figure out which banks are backing these guys. Shine a light in the darkness and expose them!

chris flash said...

NyGrump + evflip: Easy to find the bank involved, as their lien will be recorded along with the property transfer. If not online (there's a lag time), it can be found the old-fashioned way by going to 31 Chambers Street.

Once identified, an appropriate amount of heat can be applied to the Shaoul's banker.

Anonymous said...

Grump: well said, as this basically amounts to terrorism. Forcing anyone to relocate is stressful - to elderly, all the more. Established facilities like this are an absolute necessity, and should remain operating, save maintenance/updating requirements. Any other excuse is disgusting...

Craftygurltoo said...

I just happened across this post and I'm shaking as my father has been a resident of Cabrini for well over six years. I'm shocked that the Archdiocise didn't forsee this happening. I would like to reach out to others whose families will be impacted by this, I'm just three blocks away & have resided in the EastVillage all my life! This is not over by a long shot & I vow to take up this issue for our elderly residents! Don't look now Shaoul & company, you're gonna have a fight on your hands!

Anonymous said...

What makes you think the Archdiocese didn't foresee this and collude? Those payments to victims of child-raping priests don't come cheap...God forbid they actually pay for their crimes out of their own pockets.

Anonymous said...

From the last surviving tenants of a Ben Shaoul/Magnum Management takeover:

http://youtu.be/cs16EwyA5n0

chris flash said...

This nursing home was the site of a beautiful Lowes theater. According to legend, Marcus Lowe selected this site because he had grown up nearby. A photo of the theater can be seen at Cinema Treasures....

Anonymous said...

Add 118 and 120 E 4th To the list!!

glamma said...

Ben Shaoul the devil vs a bunch of elderly, low-income native New Yorkers and the priests, nuns and nurses trying to protect them.
Could there be a more clear cut case of good vs evil?
NY Post, NY Mag, NY Times, Gothamist, PLEASE COVER THIS.
This is entirely endemic of the age of outrage going on in the Bloomberg administration, which seems to want to completely destroy all that is core, unique and essential to New York City - makes me physically ill.
Serious it seems as if there they are on some kind of cultural genocide mission to get rid of all Native New Yorkers, so that there is no one left to give a sh*t as they pilfer and pillage our last vestiges for every dollar they can get.
For example why is the health department cracking down on every old and iconic NY restaurant? Does anyone else find this odd??
Bad times, these are; dark days.
From Trish Vita's post:
During what many consider the reign of terror for small businesses — 1986-1989, the last 4 years of Koch’s term — 17,433 warrants were issued to evict small businesses, out of approximately 53,000 total small business failures. During the last full four years under Bloomberg, 2005-2008, 27,809 warrants were issued to evict, with about 83,000 small businesses forced to close. Since the successful businessman Bloomberg took office, around 152,964 small businesses have been forced to go out of business.

Keep in mind Null’s article was published in August 2009 and the stats do not cover the last three years of the Bloomberg administration.

Janos said...

This sucks. I know CM Mendez has put a lot of energy into trying to stop him. If this does go forward, what about a sustained picket of the building while he is trying to sell the condos? Let no one even look at the building until they've been handed lit and talked to community members who can explain who this guy/company is.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately our free market allows deals like this to be made, but to push out a group of infirm elderly and force them to relocate at their age to God knows where is truly unconscionable. The decent thing to do is to renew the lease, so that Cabrini Center does not lose its license and give them the time to relocate five years hence.

Anonymous said...

Don't blame the Archdioces this time. Cabrini is Catholic sposored but financially and operationally independent of the archdiocese. They are planned to build a replacment faclity with Cabrini but can't do it unless Cabrini gets a lease extension.

Anonymous said...

Cabrini has known about the closure since the first day they signed the lease which is almost 20 years ago. its not like they just woke up one day and the lease was coming towards expiration. rumor is that Cabrini and local politicians had every opportunity to save the nursing home but could not get out of thr own way. they were offered the property first by the seller and negotiated unsuccessfully for 2 years. If the archdiocese, the politicians, and cabrini wanted the nursing home to stay open they will have to pay a fair market rent same as very other business in this city.

glamma said...

hey anon at 2:09, just curious how you sleep with yourself at night. how does that work? thanks.

Laura Goggin Photography said...

It looks like the deal is now done:

http://www.thelodownny.com/leslog/2011/12/cabrini-nursing-center-sold-for-25-5-million.html#more-50102

Anonymous said...

This reminds me ... I live in a Westbrook building, and last week/end, there was a crew of workers repainting the hallways, stairwells, and front door. The guys were painting on a Friday and Saturday -- starting at 8 a.m. on the weekend. I found this really odd. The only other time you see any upgrades is when they manage to get rid of a stabilized tenant and then gut renovate the apartment.

It made me wonder if they finally found a prospective buyer for the building. We're just one block away from the L train, and as Westbrook buildings go, ours is pretty nice (wide hallways, corner location). It wouldn't shock me to hear that someone wants it for condos or dorms. Is anyone else a Westbrook tenant and are they upgrading your places as well?

Anonymous said...

I am a developer and also looked at buying this site. Being familiar with its economics as I am, the issue is that Cabrini doesn't have anymore money to pay market rent for this building. Currently I believe they were paying $12 PSF per year. You all know that is really cheap. Even if they were willing to re-rent the place for $30 PSF or so, the site would not make more sense as a development site. I think you should take issue with politicians for bailing out bankers and not bailing out St. Vincent's and other groups like Cabrini. I live in the neighborhood, develop properties in the neighborhood and have no relation to the developer who bought this site.

Anonymous said...

Why is everyone criticizing the developer/buyer of the property. There something in this country called capitalism. People should get over themselves and understand that it's not personal, its just business.

Anonymous said...

it's just business, u guys already today have obama care u lazy people now u want somebody to lose money? he is doing he job and u just keep taking money from me, from 1% of the country, outrageous, then u guys should just take pay cuts from your welfare to pay for this place if u want it to stay so bad instead of insulting some1 who is good at what he does.