Following a suit charging that the scoring system to rank potential buyers of a beleaguered Long Island College Hospital was flawed, competing bidders now have one more day to reach an agreement for providing health care on the site.
State Supreme Court Justice Johnny Lee Baynes granted a request from the State University of New York, the current owner of LICH, to delay a hearing that would have brought the bidding process back to square one. Instead, Baynes kicked off a second track of new negotiations, asking bidders the Peebles, Fortis and Prime Healthcare to work out an agreement to jointly redevelop the site, and keep a hospital there.
Attorney Jim Walden, who represents community groups who sued to hold a full-service hospital to the site, told Crain’s that his clients were “within reach of a compromise.”
“Every bidder has gone back and gotten more serious,” Walden told the news site. “The ‘gives’ are getting more extensive.” [Crain’s] — Julie Strickland