New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer lambasted Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration for communications and operations snafus in the sale of a Lower East Side nursing home to a luxury condominium developer.
"The Rivington House property was allowed to slip away because of poor execution of city processes that were intended to elicit public opinion and protect the city's best interests," Stringer told reporters Monday afternoon at the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building in lower Manhattan.
The city, according to Stringer, missed crucial opportunities to stop the removal of deed restrictions that led to a $116 million land deal and a $72 million profit for private investors.
"What went down here was a failure of management on multiple levels of government," both at City Hall and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, he said. City Hall, said Stringer, "failed to communicate a clear policy direction to DCAS."
Brooklyn-based nursing home operator Allure Group bought the property and flipped it a year later for $116 million, or a $72 million profit. The nursing home closed. Stringer accused Allure principal Joel Landau of "highway robbery" and said he "should be ashamed of himself."
A message seeking comment was left with Allure.
The availability of health-care has become a pressing issue in public finance. The controversy has also shed a light on de Blasio, who has made affordable housing a cornerstone of his first term.
Stringer's report said de Blasio had not known of the transaction beforehand.
According to Stringer, First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris required agency heads to submit weekly update memos, then ignored them. "At no point did DCAS receive clear direction from City Hall," Stringer told reporters.
Stringer called for stronger mayoral oversight, robust public input and an expansion of what constitutes the city's best interest.
"The report proves once again that the mayor was unaware of this transaction, that the first deputy mayor was not consulted about the conversion to luxury condos, that the developer hid his intentions from City Hall, and that this decades-old process needed reform," de Blasio press secretary Eric Phillips said in response. "The mayor has announced an overhaul of the entire process to ensure that community benefit always comes first."
