COBBLE HILL — Brooklyn Health Partners has been chosen to run a full-service hospital at Long Island College Hospital, officials announced Thursday.
The team will run a 300- to 400-bed hospital at the Cobble Hill site with 1,000 residential units, of which 30 percent will be affordable housing. Brooklyn Health Partners will buy the LICH property from the State University of New York for $250 million.
The announcement came at a SUNY board of trustees meeting.
BHP seeks to transform the LICH campus into the “Brooklyn Medical District” with a full-service hospital, medical offices and affordable and market-rate housing, as well as commercial spaces.
Construction of the hospital would begin in 24 to 36 months, according to BHP’s proposal. During the interim development period, the team would operate a “bridge facility” with 100 beds that includes an emergency room, ambulatory care, intensive care, surgery, acute care and medical services.
Nine proposals were submitted to take over LICH through a “Request for Proposal” process that came out of a settlement in February.
“For BHP, it was uncontradictable that a new 300 to 400 bed, full service hospital was not only sustainable, but that, if equipped with the latest technologies and managed by a world-class operator, it would thrive,” the proposal said.
On Friday, SUNY will begin negotiations with BHP. If negotiations go smoothly, an agreement will be signed on May 4 with a 10 percent deposit, officials said.
“If we’re unable to come to an agreement with BHP in 30 days, the settlement agreement asks us to go to the next highest scoring proposal,” said Lora Lefebvre, SUNY associate vice chancellor for health affairs.
The next highest scoring proposals are from Peebles Corporation and Fortis Property Group, neither of which has proposed to run a full-service hospital at LICH.
SUNY will exit operations at LICH by May 22.
“We have a goal. And ours is to exit LICH, to leave it in the hands of an operator who will provide medical services to the community,” said H. Carl McCall, chairman of SUNY's board of trustees.
The final deal will allow SUNY to return to its core mission and “that is to provide excellent medical education and services in Brooklyn,” McCall said.
Labor unions remained cautiously optimistic of the new deal, which would employ at least 300 healthcare workers during the “bridge” operation of the hospital and provide an additional 2,000 jobs when the new hospital opens, they said in a statement.
Roughly 600 hospital employees, including nurses and doctors, had received layoff notices as a result of the settlement agreement between state officials, community groups and labor unions, according to a SUNY spokesman.
“Our coalition has fought tirelessly to preserve LICH as the full-service hospital that Brooklyn patients need — but our work is not done,” said Jill Furillo, executive director of the New York State Nurses Association, in a statement.
“We must ensure that LICH patients have a seamless transfer of care, LICH does not close for any period of time, and that the Brooklyn Health Partners team treats LICH employees and their collective bargaining representatives with respect.”
