A Borough Park investment group active in the acquisition of New York City hospitals closed yesterday on a 49 percent stake in the project to redevelop the Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill, sources told The Real Deal.
The group, including investor Chaim “Harry” Miller, bought the minority stake in Brooklyn Health Partners, the winning bidder to maintain the hospitals and use excess development rights to build residential housing, the sources said.
Merrell Schexnydre, the chairman and CEO of Brooklyn Health Partners, won the bidding for the project with a $250 million bid selected by the State University of New York board of trustees.
Schexnydre did not respond to several requests for comment. Miller, through a spokesperson, declined to comment.
The Borough Park entity that made the investment was Atlantic Partners Lofts LLC. The terms of the deal were not available. The current zoning provides about 1 million square feet of development rights, but the purchasing group plans to file an application to rezone the area that could give the site as much as 2 million square feet of residential development rights, sources close to the deal said.
Miller and partners recently acquired the 84-unit residential building 45 John Street in Lower Manhattan for $60 million and 29 Ryerson Street in Clinton Hill for $29 million.
Miller has also been part of a group that purchased 90-02 Queens Boulevard, the former St. Johns Hospital in Elmhurst, for $38.4 million, that he is converting to residential apartments. In addition, Miller is expected to close in May on the $22 million purchase of the former Parkway Hospital in Forest Hills, and convert it into an urgent care and ambulatory center with medical offices.