NEW YORK CITY — The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has approved the sale of Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center's Manhattan campus. A joint venture between the Rudin family and North Shore-Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Health System acquired the campus for $260 million.
The joint venture plans to redevelop and reopen the Greenwich Village hospital, which closed following the healthcare provider's April 2010 bankruptcy. The planned opening for the new medical center will be fall 2013.
In addition to the campus, St. Vincent's is contributing the O'Toole Building, formerly the healthcare provider's primary care clinic, to the deal. The six-story, 160,000-square-foot building will be redeveloped into the North Shore-LIJ Center for Comprehensive Care. The $110 million project will contain a full-service imaging center as well as a ambulatory surgery center. North Shore-LIJ will be the primary developer for the property, with the Rudin family contributing $10 million to help offset the development costs.
The Rudin family is seeking to redevelop the surrounding area, too. Four of the buildings that are part of the St. Vincent's campus will be adaptively reused for multifamily housing and retail. Plans released last month mentioned 590,000 square feet of new residential space including 300 apartments and five brownstones. A park is also being constructed, and the Rudin family plans to finance the construction of a new elementary school at the Foundling Hospital.
The law firm of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel served as lead counsel for St. Vincent's during bankruptcy proceedings. Grant Thornton's Corporate Advisory & Restructuring Services, led by Chief Restructuring Officer Mark Toney, assisted in the proceedings.
At the time of the bankruptcy, St. Vincent's claimed more than $1 billion in liabilities. According to reports at the time, the company's largest unsecured creditor was a federal pension insurance agency. Local reports claim GE Capital is one of the provider's creditors, being owned approximately $1 billion.
The court approval of the sale comes in spite of some neighborhood opposition to Rudin and North Shore-LIJ's plans. The sticking point has to do with Rudin's plans for a multifamily component. Critics think any work at the project should consist solely of redeveloping the hospital.
— Coleman Wood