[EVG file photo]
In a discussion on "The Stoler Report" last summer, developer Ben Shaoul, president of Magnum Real Estate Group, mentioned that he was looking to sell his current "conversion of a nursing home" in a year or two.
Apparently the time is here. The Post reports that Bloom 62 on Avenue B and East Fifth Street — the former Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation — "is being shown to investors and expected to sell for roughly $70 million."
In December 2011, Shaoul and company purchased Cabrini for $25.5 million from a family trust made up of the estates of Jacob W. Friedman and Sol Henkind. Cabrini closed for good on June 30, 2012.
The 240-bed Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation — sponsored by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus — provided health care for low-income elderly residents in the East Village. The center opened in 1993 and served 240 patients and employed nearly 300 employees.
At Bloom 62, four-bedroom apartments for upwards of $7,600 ... in the upscale
The Post also mentions that "one retail unit in the process of being leased."
Previously on EV Grieve:
Claim: Ben Shaoul is the new owner of Cabrini nursing home, will convert to condos
Report: Local politicians reach out to Ben Shaoul as re-sale of the Cabrini Nursing Center seems likely
More details on Cabrini's closing announcement
Q-and-A with Patricia Krasnausky, president and CEO of Cabrini Eldercare
Good for him. It's called CAPITALISM people.....
ReplyDeleteI've been in the building a few times. Cheap finishes. The $7600 apartment is actually what they are calling a convertible 3. Put a wall up in the living room to make the 4th. The way I understand it is that a lot of college kids from out of town are renting these kind of places. They report that the dorms cost $2000 a month so that if they can get a place for under $2000 a head they can convince their parents to act as guarantors. That is how these buildings are being marketed. And many are no fee or offer rent incentives. They all have washer/dryers, dishwashers and roof decks. etc.
ReplyDeleteFUCK capitalism.......
ReplyDelete......it's called GREED PIG asshat!!!
Says you. Cabrini helped thousands of people. HELPED. PEOPLE. Helped people from the neighborhood, people who do not have a local option for that help anymore.
ReplyDeleteJust wait til all the luxury condo and rental people need rehab, hospitals, etc. Look around. Where are they going? And their relatives will have to schlep to see them. Or not.
No matter how much money he makes it will not save him from the spot in Hell waiting for him. Anon. 8:48, may your mother live in a building Shaoul buys and then be forced onto the street at 85. There, isn't capitalism WONDERFUL??? You tool.
ReplyDeleteFuck this place.
ReplyDeleteThat is so fucked up. Capitalism works to a degree but a guy shouldn't be able to essentially buy out a nursing home of longtime residents, rebuild it, and flip it and then leave. That shit destroys neighborhoods. That shit destroys cities. Who the fuck are we? I don't get it.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a problem with capitalism, but the investmentafication of residential real estate is the next stage of the housing bubble. It's where the rats ran when the water rose over the mortgage-backed securities debacle.
ReplyDeleteBuilding and converting space is no longer about giving people a place to live, but it's about how to take money that you're afraid to put into the stock market, hedge funds, or govt bonds, and instead, put it into making money off residents. It's a sad state of city planning and a bubble that will pop soon enough as they all do.
Many will get it done and get out of town before the bubble pops, but that will be our next bad time in this town, and guess who we'll be bailing out then? I'm gonna hate when that day comes, but the real estate interests will build their false castle so that we'll have no choice but to save them.
Being reasonably pro-capitalism is one thing, but anyone who admires Ben Shaoul is even sadder than the dirtbag himself, which is quite a feat.
ReplyDeleteThat place is haunted!!!!
ReplyDeleteOne thing I can say; that's got to give us the highest concentration of children's schools, within a 2-3 block area, of any neighborhood in the city.
ReplyDeleteSheesh!
hedge fund house of cards.
ReplyDeleteThere really need to be limits on what real estate developers do. Neighborhoods need certain things like hospitals and nursing homes. It's insane that this nursing home was destroyed for the benefit of a few people who are making an enormous profit off the deal. I believe in capitalism but unchecked capitalism where only a few benefit, which is what we have now, is dangerous.
ReplyDeleteHey, I love the free market and capitalism..
ReplyDeleteBut, Ben Shaoul is still a huge douche
You can make money and not become a blood sucking parasite...
What bowboy said.
ReplyDeleteGrew up on 4th st. between C and D.I know the danger in the neighborhood. A friend's parents were murdered in the Baruch Houses. Same neighborhood,same people. You want to live there, good luck!
ReplyDeleteWell, since this has turned into a thread on capitalism, let me just say that I abhor capitalism. And it's true that inflated real estate values is a function of the current state of global capitalism. You can't get rid of one without getting rid of the other.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, this neighborhood really needs a new Waldorf school when we have like four of the best small public schools in the city within a ten-block radius. Well, I guess they reckon there's a market for rich assholes here that want to waste their money on private schools that cater to Ivy League admissions anxiety...
ReplyDeleteHoly crap, check out this advertorial from this New Amsterdam school -- they're selling themselves as a "green school" and setting up shop from The Earth School (which is an excellent pre-K-5 public school with an environmentally-accented curriculum)! Holy greenwashing, Batman. Anyone who shells out big bucks to get their kids in there for fear of having them among the hoi polloi is a total sucker.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous above, I know nothing about Ben Schaoul and his record, but what kind of jerk picks on a wellmeaning children's preschool? I do know New Amsterdam as I am a parent there (and long time resident in the neighborhood) and it is a lovely group of people and a wonderful school with a diverse student body. They selected the space because it is 3 blocks away from their current space, not because it is across the street from the Earth School. And the entire neighborhood absolutely needs more schools of all kinds - both public and private -, all of the schools are overcrowded as is. You clearly don't have any idea what you are talking about if you think that Waldorf schools are about getting rich kids into ivy league schools. It's an alternative school system that is totally different from traditional 'prep' or public . It also offers financial aid and cultivates a diversity of socioeconomic backgrounds. Parents who send their children there do so because it is a unique and wonderful environment for learning and creativity, not because they are concerned about Ivy League admissions or getting in with 'hoi polloi' - whatever that means
ReplyDeleteyeah-god forbid we bring up any more children to be conscious adults aware of their impact on others and the interconnectedness of humanity.
ReplyDeletewhere will we find the next ruthless real estate mogul when all our kids have gone to waldorf school?
I'm really excited about New Amsterdam growing in the neighborhood. NewAm is a genuinely caring school that cultivates great parenting and healthy, compassionate children. The neighborhood will benefit from its presence. No rich assholes here, guys. Conscientious folks looking to do more good in a great neighborhood. Many of us have lived here for years. Hope you'll come and find out more in person. Peace.
ReplyDeleteAs a math teacher who works in the public system here in the East Village, and also a resident, I am looking forward to our educational community growing with the addition of a Waldorf Grades school. What they do is so unlike what I do in my classroom. They have exceptional curriculum and an inspiring long-view of the child as a learner and citizen, something institutionalized testing does its best to extinguish. The public system would do well to watch and learn a few things from what they do. Waldorf schooling has been around for almost 100 years. This is the real deal. No Child Left Behind, Common Core, all the initiatives public schools roll out every few years feel like groping in the dark compared to the sophistication yet simplicity of the Waldorf model.
ReplyDeleteI have researched its pedagogy and have shared my discoveries with my colleagues and my students. Both have really enjoyed the nuggets we've explored. In fact, my middle school students count our Waldorf exploration into geometric constructions as one of their favorite units of the year. Their work is gorgeous.
Having New Amsterdam in the neighborhood (as they have already been for several years - this is a growing initiative for the school) is a great thing for all of us. We will only learn from each other, and what professional would balk at that?
Thank you, New Amsterdam, and welcome! I look forward to learning and growing with you.
As a low income, single earner household who's child currently attends kindergarten at New Amsterdam, with the help of financial aid from the school, I hope the east village community can see beyond the stereotype of "private school" and understand that this school is different. Their goal is to reach local families and give them an attainable alternative to the status quo in education, one that champions ethnic and socio-economic diversity, creativity and critical thinking. Waldorf education supports and educates the family as well as the child, to build stronger communities and enabling individuals to make a positive contribution to humanity.
ReplyDeleteAs for the anonymous comment about the neighborhood having four of the best public schools in the neighborhood, they clearly don't understand the process and what it takes to get into a school like the Earth School. Just because it's public, it doesn't mean your child is getting in.
If I had to choose between a private school, another bar, or a Seven Eleven, I would choose a school.
ReplyDeleteThe neighborhood dodged a bullet as far as I am concerned.