Hospital sites go on the block

Real estate investors and New York’s leading health care organizations are actively reviewing the prospects of acquiring three hospital sites in New York City.

Offers for sale or net lease on the complex are due Thursday for the most sought-out hospital site, the Cabrini Medical Center. The property is located within the heart of the Gramercy Park section of Manhattan between Second and Third avenues with frontages on the north side of East 19th Street and the south side of East 20th Street.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court has retained Grubb & Ellis New York to offer the medical center for sale.

The property consists of five buildings totaling 452,600 square feet of gross building area, with 367,700 square feet of total zoning floor area. The five buildings are built and operated as a single complex of buildings interconnected at various levels. With the exception of two of the buildings, the properties can be acquired individually.

Permitted zoning consists of residential and community facility use as-of-right for some of the properties. The conversion to residential or other non-hospital use may require action by the Board of Standards and Appeals.

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Industry leaders expect New York City’s leading health care institutions to consider the acquisition of the medical center. The leading contenders are Beth Israel Medical Center, which is located at First Avenue at 16th Street, and the NYU Langone Medical Center, which is located on First Avenue between 30th and 34th streets. NYU is the owner of the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, which is located at 301 East 17th Street. Both medical centers are in need of new and additional facilities. The other possible contender is New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Meanwhile, bids are due today for an auction that will be held on Oct. 16 for the sale of St. John’s Hospital Center, located at 90-02 Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst, and the Mary Immaculate Hospital Campus, located at 152-11 89th Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. The bankruptcy court has retained CB Richard Ellis to sell these sites.

The bankruptcy court is seeking a minimum bid of $13.5 million for the 257,500-square-foot St. John’s Hospital and an 86,400-square-foot parking garage located on 1.82 acres. The site is zoned for residential with a commercial overlay.
A minimum bid of $4.351 million is needed to acquire the 301,400-square-foot Mary Immaculate Hospital and its 99,400-square-foot parking garage located on 4 acres of land. This site is zoned for residential use.

Neither one of the Queens hospital sites are expected to be sold to a health care institution. Perhaps the best use of these facilities is residential rental, student housing or an assisted living development or nursing home.

In either case, the biggest obstacle facing the purchaser of any of these sites is the lack of available financing for future development.