The prospect of Cobble Hill’s 150-year-old Long Island College Hospital closing its doors for good has NYC’s developers drooling at the thought of $1 billion worth of new construction and conversions, according to the New York Daily News.
The prime Brooklyn site includes five main and several smaller buildings, a waterfront parking lot and townhouses all around Atlantic Avenue and Henry and Hicks streets.
One expert estimated the hospital’s total assets at $750 million to $1 billion and developers are hoping for a project similar to the one planned by Two Trees Management Company for the old Domino Sugar factory, according to the Daily News.
“This property is unique,” Michael Stern, JDS Development managing director, said. “The opportunity for a developer to build something of this scale in a premium Brooklyn neighborhood just doesn’t happen. LICH will attract the biggest international developers.”
But some are bemoaning the lose of the area’s only hospital and the possibility that hundreds of luxury condos could eat away more at the neighborhood’s character.
“All people want these days are luxury housing with views,” Sotheby’s International Realty’s Karen Heyman, told the Daily News. “Young buyers don’t think about (the need for) a hospital nearby. It will be a terrible loss for the neighborhood.” [NYDN] —Christopher Cameron