PARK SLOPE — The owner of an assisted living facility is suing residents' families for $50 million, claiming they're blocking his attempts to evict their aging loved ones, the New York Post reported Monday.
Haysha Deitsch, owner of Prospect Park Residence, filed a lawsuit recently against several women whose parents live at the facility, claiming that they're involved in a "scheme" to prevent him from kicking out their parents so he can sell the property to a developer, according to the Post.
Deitsch has been trying to empty the facility of residents since 2014, when he abruptly told tenants that it was closing. Deitsch, a developer who's building a new high-rise on Fourth Avenue and President Street, had planned to sell Prospect Park Residence for $76 million to a developer that wanted to transform it into luxury condos.
However a small group of tenants refused to leave Prospect Park Residence, and they've been battling Deitsch in court for almost two years. They accused Deitsch of forcing them to live in "deplorable conditions" as a way to harass them into leaving the valuable building, which overlooks Prospect Park at Grand Army Plaza.
A spokesman for Deitsch said Monday that Deitsch followed state laws when he closed Prospect Park Residence after the facility suffered "unsustainable losses." The spokesman added that staff at the facility helped more than 100 of its senior residents find new housing.
Deitsch’s spokesman said the families of the residents who've refused to leave "are unwilling to accept those realities" and "are seeking to monetize the moment guided by acts of greed and malice."
"They have conspired to blunt legal business opportunities, offered false characterizations, initiated frivolous legal actions and repeatedly acted in bad faith," said spokesman Paul Larrabee. "This conduct is unacceptable and we have made the difficult decision to seek the involvement of the court."
