Evan BleierSister Kelly CarpenterA program that serves needy East Village and Lower East Side immigrants is in peril, as a significant chunk of its funding will disappear when its sponsor, the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, closes next month.
After last-ditch efforts to keep the Cabrini Center open fell through and the new owner of its building at Fifth Street and Avenue B, Benjamin Shaoul’s Magnum Realty Group, announced in March that it would go ahead with redevelopment plans, it became apparent that the nursing home’s 240 residents would be forced to relocate.
Those elderly residents won’t be the only ones affected by the closure on June 30. The Cabrini Center also sponsors Cabrini Immigrant Services, a Lower East Side organization that, according to its director Sister Kelly Carpenter, feeds about 16,000 people a week. City, state, and federal grants totaling $94,000 pay for most of the meals, but the cost of administering them has, to this point, been covered by the center. Read more…
Stephen Rex BrownA letter sent from Kenneth Fisher to local politicians indicates that the attorney’s client, Benjamin Shaoul’s Magnum Real Estate Group, may be close to reselling the property that houses the Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, which Magnum recently purchased for $25.5 million. With a new for-profit operator in the mix, the deal would allay fears that the building will be replaced by condos, and would help insure that it continue to be used as a nursing home.
The letter was sent on Wednesday to State Senator Daniel Squadron and other politicians who had earlier written to Mr. Fisher reiterating their position that “any future use of the building should retain nursing home beds on the Lower East Side.” In his response, Mr. Fisher indicated that on Dec. 6, he was advised by a lawyer representing Cabrini that an earlier plan to relocate the not-for-profit nursing home had fallen through, and the Center was now negotiating to be purchased by a for-profit operator that might also be able to purchase the building from Magnum. Read more…
