Rose Associates, a developer and manager of both residential and commercial real estate, has been tapped to serve as property manager for Mount Sinai Medical Center’s residential real estate holdings. The properties — including more than 1,700 apartments in various buildings across the Upper East Side — are used mostly as staff housing. The 2 million-square-foot portfolio is spread across 25 different buildings. [more]

Stuart Saft

Stuart Saft, a partner at law firm Dewey & LeBeouf, was tapped in January to lead the firm’s global real estate practice. Saft represents some of the city’s highest-profile owners in complex cases involving residential properties such as conversions at Manhattan House and the Apthorp. He also works on deals at commercial properties, for example working recently on the development of Mt. Sinai’s new Center for Science and Medicine in East Harlem. In addition, Saft has written 15 books.

Has there been more activity in the residential market?
We have seen an increase in activity in preliminary offering plans [filed with the attorney general's office] to convert [rental] buildings [to condominiums]. We probably have started on three just in the last month and we are getting a great many inquiries from landlords. [more]

St. Vincent’s Hospital, the struggling Greenwich Village institution that for the past several months has been fighting to stay open despite $700 million in debt and $10 million in monthly operating losses, will shutter its inpatient unit after a vote by the hospital’s board last night, Crain’s reported. Elective procedures will stop in two days’ time and other services, save an urgent care center, will be phased out over the next few weeks. The vote clears the way for a Chapter 11 filing. If a partner can be found during the bankruptcy process, the urgent care center could remain open. Mount Sinai Medical Center and Continuum Health Partners had previously expressed interest in taking over the hospital, but lenders GE Capital and TD Bank resisted forcing the hospital into bankruptcy, and each of the potential acquirers backed out as the task of returning the St. Vincent’s to profitability loomed large. Governor David Paterson said in a statement that the state Department of Health would seek proposals for partners in St. Vincent’s new, limited care services. [Crain’s]

From left: Richard LeFrak, Karen LeFrak, Michael Bronson, chief of roint replacement at Mount Sinai, Rick Friedberg, Francine LeFrak, Peter May, Evan Flatow, chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics at Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai Medical Center recently celebrated its new Joint Replacement Center at 5 East 98th Street, where construction was completed in the second week of December. The 5,000-square-foot space, which takes up half of the building’s seventh floor, was formerly occupied by the Department of Ophthalmology, now located in the Annenberg Pavilion at 1468 Madison Avenue. Also unveiled at last month’s reception was the new Samuel and Ethel LeFrak Center for Patient Education, housed within the joint replacement unit. The LeFrak family donated an undisclosed amount to create its eponymous center, complete with HDTV monitors to display post-surgical information and videos, and was on hand at the reception to celebrate the new space. TRD [more]

The competitive pool for a partnership with cash-strapped Lenox Hill
Hospital shrunk to one yesterday, when NYU Langone Medical Center
withdrew from negotiations, leaving only North Shore-Long Island
Jewish Health System in the running. NYU had been seeking a complete merger
with Lenox Hill, which would have removed control from the bulk of
Lenox Hill’s current administrators, while promoting many Lenox Hill
clinical department heads, but Lenox Hill declined to consider such an arrangement.
North Shore-LIJ’s proposal, which would affiliate the two facilities
while leaving Lenox Hill administrators in place, would not save the
hospital as much money. Lenox Hill had a $20 million operating loss last year. Nearby Mount Sinai Hospital had also expressed interest in a
merger with Lenox Hill but was never invited to submit a proposal
[Crain's]