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Maligned Prospect Park Senior Home Developer Sets Sights on Fourth Avenue

By Leslie Albrecht | September 10, 2015 6:54pm
 Seniors and their families held a rally protesting the abrupt closure of Prospect Park Residence in 2014. Now the facility's owner, Haysha Deitsch, is planning to build a high-rise on Fourth Ave.
Seniors and their families held a rally protesting the abrupt closure of Prospect Park Residence in 2014. Now the facility's owner, Haysha Deitsch, is planning to build a high-rise on Fourth Ave.
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Facebook/Prospect Park Residence Stop the Evictions

PARK SLOPE — The developer who forced seniors from an assisted living facility across the street from Prospect Park has filed plans to build a new high-rise on rapidly gentrifying Fourth Avenue.

Haysha Deitsch, the owner of Prospect Park Residence, filed plans this week to construct an 11-story building at 243 Fourth Ave. near President Street.

Plans for the new building call for 16 residential units, a private roof deck, a pet spa and a children's playroom, according to YIMBY, which first reported the filing. The building will replace an auto repair shop next door to the Rock Shop bar.

Deitsch is listed as "Hosea Deitsch" on the Department of Buildings filing, but the LLC developing the site is registered to Haysha Deitsch at 1 Prospect Park West, the address of Prospect Park Residence, according to the New York Department of State.

Deitsch abruptly announced the closure of Prospect Park Residence in 2014, leaving elderly residents scrambling for new housing.

Deitsch at first claimed he couldn't afford to run the facility, but it was later revealed in court proceedings that he planned to sell the building for $76 million so it could be turned into luxury condos.

That deal has stalled because a handful of seniors, including a Holocaust survivor, have refused to leave.

The remaining half-dozen residents sued Deitsch and the state Department of Health, which oversees assisted living facilities. Lawyers for the remaining seniors say Deitsch has forced the seniors to live in "deplorable" conditions — including depriving them of air conditioning on hot days.

Deitsch's actions have been called "evil" by City Councilman Brad Lander. Andy Bachman, the former rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim, once said that Deitsch, an Orthodox Jew, "lacked basic Jewish values of decency."

Deitsch could not be reached immediately for comment Thursday. He's denied past claims that he's mistreated seniors at Prospect Park Residence and has said that the facility's closure has followed state Dept. of Health regulations.

Deitsch, the son-in-law of developer Shaya Boymelgreen, has also built projects in Manhattan such as the 30-story 133 Greenwich St., according to Brownstoner.

The new building will be designed by Karl Fischer, the architect behind the luxury high-rise on Sixth Street and Fourth Avenue in Park Slope and several other Brooklyn buildings.

Deitsch's high-rise joins a growing list of tall buildings in the works for Fourth Avenue, which was rezoned to allow for taller development in 2003.

At least 11 buildings are planned for the stretch of the busy avenue that runs between Park Slope and Gowanus.