Zoning For Quality and Affordability Proposal is Disingenuous – the Deitsch Cases

ZQA – HONORABLE INTENTIONS GONE AWRY, ENABLING PREDATORY BUILDING FLIPS

A Letter to LM May 9, 2016

The purported implementation of Senior Housing…Assisted Living Facilities…Independent Residences as a benefit from the Zoning for Quality and Affordability proposal is disingenuous.

Take the example of the March 2014 Prospect Park Residence in Park Slope from which 123 elders who had been promised to be able to “age in place” were evicted with 90 days notice. What needs to be understood is that this owner, Haysha Deitsch, a real estate developer-who masqueraded as a senior residence operator, applied for certification to the New York State agency-the Dept of Health for Licensure. He did so in order to skirt New York City tenancy protections for the residents. He, under the imprimatur of the State, was able dispose of all his “tenants” en masse claiming “business reversals”.

In reality, he bought the building for $40,000,000 and sold it for $76,500,000, all blessed by the DOH permitted it. It took 90 days to allow predatory real estate greed to churn the property and the City of New York could do nothing. The State allowed it. Basically the strategy of: Buy/develop a building, advertise it as senior housing, get a DOH license as an Assisted Living Facility; sell it; and dump the frightened residents is a scheme that has been ubiquitous.

There is presently a Bill: A06390/S02472 which is in limbo in Albany to require a minimum one year notification for closure. Until or if that is ratified, the template for bait and switch is baked into the enabling of developers. The complicity by New York City agencies to encourage amoral business ethics at the expense of the vulnerable requires a serious review and certainly more comprehensive investigation of the fallout.

The ZQA may have honorable intentions but while it attempts to fix the shortage of senior dwellings, it will do more harm than good.

 

Additional Sources:

Haysha Deutsch –

The Real Deal, February 17, 2016

Haysha Deitsch moves forward on 11-story luxury condo

Developer Haysha Deitsch, best known for his many attempts to evict disabled senior citizens, is moving forward with plans for an 11-story, 16-unit luxury residential building in Park Slope, filing demolition permits this week.

If approved, two auto body repair shops at 243 and 245 Fourth Avenue will be torn down and replaced with a 118-foot condominium building near President Street and will feature a pet spa, private roof deck and a children’s playroom. Karl Fischer, the architect behind Naftali Group’s luxury rental building at 267 Sixth Street, will design the building.

The high-end building will join the residential and retail boom along Fourth Avenue — dubbed the “Canyon of Mediocrity” — in Park Slope.

Deitsch is still mired in litigation over 1 Prospect Park West, a 130-room senior assisted living facility that he bought for $40 million in 2006, and has been trying to sell for $76.5 million since last year, DNAinfo reported. The seven tenants that remain at the facility took Deitsch to court. Last summer a Brooklyn judge ruled the landlord couldn’t evict them amid the court battle.

The delayed shutdown of the facility stalled the deal between Deitsch and Sugar Hill Capital Partners. The real estate investment firm also sued Deitsch over the property.

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The Brooklyn news/Park Slope March 15, 2016

Owner of notorious old folks home sues families of residents he tried to evict

 

Reader Feedback:

Charles from Bklyn says:

This landlord should have done the right thing and met his responsibilities with the elderly home. He should have waited the ten years for the clients to pass with dignity and then sold the property. Greed overcame his good judgment and legally required duty. So instead of a praise and a place in heaven, he has a bad reputation and a place in hell. No sympathy.

March 15, 9:32 am

What Next? from Park Slope says:

Maybe Deitsch should also sue Brad Lander, Judge Saitta, the former rabbi of Beth Elohim and the other public officials and citizens who have revealed his indifference to the sanctity of human life when it interfered with his immoral scheme for profit?

Deutsch should have thought about his reputation BEFORE he bought the facility ten years ago ONLY for the purpose of evicting its residents for profit
despite the predictable death and suffering that his plan would cause.

March 15, 12:48 pm

freddy from slope says:

Or Deitsch could have run it at a loss until the tenants either left of their own free will or passed away and still made millions as he shrunk it down to fewer floors. 

But, no, he had to keep every dime of profit theoretically possible.

a__hole

March 15, 1:58 pm

Watching Our Own Flint, Mich from New York…all of it says:

The Dept of Health abets predatory for-profit nursing homes and assisted living residences. 

Also complicit: 

Attorney General Schneiderman who should have prosecuted Deitsch/PPR for constructive fraud and deceptive practices…why didn’t he?

The State Inspector General who merely referred the complaints to who else? The Dept of Health!

Those State Assembly Members who do not fight the nursing home and assisted living residence owners’ lobby: Leading Age by NOT writing authentic Bills and regulations to protect the vulnerable aging-your loved ones and mine…wonder why…?

Brooklyn…New York City…New York State -wake up. Growing old in New York & failing to find safe haven is the path to state sponsored abuse of the disabled elderly. 

Our state government is complicit and harmful to your health.

March 15, 2:41 pm

VLM from Park Slope says:

“He perished because he was sad — he died of a broken heart.”

Is that, like, an official cause of death you can have listed on a death certificate? 

This story is filled with terrible people on both sides.

March 15, 3:33 pm

Jesse from Prospect Heights says:

To VLM,

A few weeks after the eviction announcement made by facility, one of the youngest and least sick residents passed away suddenly in his apartment.
Check the record.

You might also learn something if you had the opportunity to communicate with family members whose loved ones died or declined rapidly very soon after being dislocated from their homes.
Check statistics of consequences after even temporary dislocations of patients after Hurricane Sandy.

You obviously have not had much experience with extremely elderly, disabled or vulnerable human beings.

March 15, 4:39 pm

Tale of 2 cities that we all get old and nobody from Park Slope says:

Deblasio knew about this for years when he was a council member. He did nothing. Residents reached out to him when he was public advocate – He did nothing. His Chief of Staff & BDB should be publicly shamed for not looking out for the seniors in this building. Deblasio’s nose is getting longer and longer when it comes to advocating for New Yorkers and seniors.

March 15, 10:33 pm

B from Park Slope says:

I’ve lived next door to this facility for the last 6 years. The operator of this facility has been a terrible neighbor and it seems a terrible caretaker to the residents of the home. Since the efforts to evict the tenants the building has fallen into even greater disrepair. They had pipes burst over the winter probably from turn off heat to parts of the building, I can see the collapsed ceilings and rubbish all over a couple of apartments who’s windows are opposite mine. There are rats and I’ve heard rumors of squatters living in the building.

Now things have taken a turn for the strange, last night there was a loud rock band playing in the building until after 12:30AM. Yes, a rock band playing in a home for frail elderly people! 

I’ve reached out to the police as well as Brad Lander. These older people shouldn’t be subjected to this kind of mistreatment and harassment. If I hear it again I’m going to march right over there and demand they put a stop to it.

March 17, 10:49 am

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The real Deal, March 14, 2016

Haysha Deitsch sues nursing home tenants’ children for $50M

Developer Haysha Deitsch is employing another tactic to finally evict the remaining elderly tenants from his Park Slope property: suing their children for $50 million.

In 2006, Deitsch bought the 130-room senior assisted living facility at 1 Prospect Park West for $40 million. He then made the controversial move to evict around 100 seniors. The remaining tenants took Dietsch to court.

Now, the Brooklyn landlord is claiming those tenants’ children are blocking his plans to evict their parents and ultimately sell the property, the New York Post reported.

“It’s just absurd. I really do feel harassed, and I think that’s the purpose of this,” defendant Joyce Singer, whose 91-year-old mother has lived there since 2010, told the Post. “This is just totally crazy. The only thing we care about is the well-being of our parents.”

Last summer, a Brooklyn judge ruled Deitsch could not evict the remaining tenantsamid ongoing litigation. Deitsch has been trying to sell the property for $76.5 million since last year and the delayed shutdown stalled a deal with Sugar Hill Capital Partners. Sugar Hill, a real estate investment firm, also sued Deitsch over the property.

The facility, called Prospect Park Residence, was hit with a class action lawsuit in 2012 alleging it was operating as an unlicensed assisted living facility, according to reports.

It is currently in the hands of a temporary receiver after Deitsch did not comply with court orders to provide hot water and heat, the Post reported. [NYP] — Dusica Sue Malesevic