New Spot, Same Reaction

Jewish Home Lifecare gets cold shoulder from residents on new proposal

By Megan Finnegan

Jewish Home Lifecare is hoping that the third time is the charm in its quest for a new Upper West Side location. The not-for-profit company, which provides elder care services in Manhattan and the Bronx, currently runs a nursing home facility on 106th Street and has been looking to redevelop for several years.

After initiating a controversial land swap with a developer, JHL planned to build a new facility on West 100th Street but is now on the verge of announcing its third potential location on West 97th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues, on a parking lot that curreantly belongs to Park West Village. As the company prepares to unveil its latest plan, some community members have already taken a stance against it.

“Jewish Home Lifecare does not speak to the community,” said Catherine Unsino, a local resident and a nursing home care advocate. “We’ve protested the Department of Health in Albany. They did not have a public process that they’re supposed to have.”

Unsino and a handful of other residents set up a table at the 97th Street greenmarket last week just outside the lot where JHL will potentially construct its new 24-story building. They spoke to people passing by on the sidewalk and gathered signatures on a petition to protest the location.

Maggie Peyton, president of the Park West Village Tenants Association, said her main objection to the project was the fact that tenants will lose their above-ground parking lot and be forced to use valet parking underground, which she said isn’t safe.

“We are saying that we are not going because this is a diminishment of service, this was not what was on our lease,” said Peyton. “We’re prepared to go to a judge.”

Peyton also pointed out that replacing the parking lot doesn’t just change parking, it blocks out the light and air the open lot currently allows on the street.

“It will cast a shadow over everything,” said Jean Dorsey, who lives across the street from the site. “This is a block that is very child friendly—we have schools, a daycare center, we have a clinic that gets a lot of kids. We have a lot of young people.”

Emily Margolis, who lives in 400 Central Park West, one of the seven Park West Village apartment buildings, said she worries that the new development won’t provide enough sorely needed nursing home space.

“This plan does not allow for any expansion,” said Margolis. “There could easily be the need in the future. The place for expansion is up there on 106th.”

Unsino and others insist that their group’s objections go beyond the choice of location, but that’s one of the main issues that has been plaguing JHL since it first began exploring options to expand. Originally, JHL applied for an exemption from contextual zoning laws that would have allowed them to build a new facility at their current 106th Street location. Following state regulations, they obtained a Certificate of Need for the project and looked for a development partner who would buy a portion of their land parcel and in turn provide funding for a new, state-of-the-art elder care facility. At the time, JHL worked with the community board and elected officials to compose a plan that would work for the neighborhood, but they couldn’t find a developer interested in the deal.

What they found instead was the opportunity to swap land with a developer, the Chetrit Group, which owns the Park West Village complex and can now build on the 106th Street site, which has a zoning exemption attached to it. In turn, JHL would receive what CEO Audrey Weiner told the Wall Street Journal last year would be “tens of millions of dollars” as well as a new site for their facility. That site was on 100th Street, but the plan drew the same community ire that is now being mustered against the 97th Street plan. Part of that community outrage was based on the fact that JHL was not required to change its Certificate of Need with the state; they were legally only required to make an amendment, which local officials call an unacceptable oversight by the Department of Health.

“An amendment—it’s just a small, minor change and it doesn’t warrant any type of pubic hearing,” said City Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito. “That to me is outrageous, that the local community would not have a say in this process.” She and State Sen. Bill Perkins have written to the state to call for additional hearings on the basis that the plan has changed dramatically since the Certificate of Need was issued.

“The concern here, overall, is the process,” said Mark-Viverito. “There are some legitimate concerns of the residents that, whether it’s 100th Street or 97th Street, it really doesn’t seem to be a good area for the size of this project. One hundred and sixth was a much better location because it was a wider street. A lot of work was put into getting the community to support it.”

But Ethan Geto, who represents JHL, said all of the community’s concerns will be addressed when JHL is ready to release its full plans. He is hoping to organize an open community forum in September or October to answer neighbors’ questions fully.

While he could not confirm that JHL plans to build at the 97th Street site, citing ongoing negotiations, Geto said they are already working to get in front of the community’s potential grievances.

“We are particularly aware of the trepidation about the traffic impacts, so we are prepared to take many mitigation measures that would significantly, dramatically impact traffic,” Geto said. He could not specify what measures would be taken, but some fear that it may involve narrowing the sidewalk to widen the street, which would take away from space for the popular greenmarket held there.

Geto said JHL is planning to construct the building in line with state-of-the-art geriatric care standards created by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Greenhouse Project—not to be conflated with a hothouse for plants or a tricked-out eco-friendly house—lays out plans intended to alleviate the lack of privacy and warehousing feel that some contemporary nursing homes engender. Geto said each resident would have a private room and bathroom that open onto a shared living, kitchen and dining New Spot, Same Reaction.