St. Vincent’s medical tenants prepare for eviction battle

A group of medical tenants is seeking to stay put at the St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center building that North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System wants to clear out for a new $110 million health care center that would include an emergency room and surgery facility. According to Crain’s, the doctors renting space at the O’Toole Building, on Seventh Avenue between 12th and 13th streets, are asking the federal bankruptcy court overseeing the St. Vincent’s bankruptcy case to refuse North Shore’s request to force them to leave. The Rudin family, which is set to develop the building alongside North Shore, has already offered to help the doctor’s find alternate office space, but ophthalmologist John Khadem, whose attorneys filed the motion, said many of his patients are in wheelchairs and would have difficulty adjusting to a move. The doctors’ leases expire May 31, however, and the hospital system expects to submit its plans for O’Toole’s redevelopment to The Bankruptcy Court next week and to the state next month. [Crain’s]