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By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Paper
They’re in the money — and out of the nursing home.
The owner of beleaguered Park Slope old folks’ home Prospect Park Residence has finally coughed up the $3.35 million that he agreed to pay his golden-aged tenants in exchange for them packing up and leaving so he can sell the building — six weeks after it was due.
But it is better late than never for the nonagenarians, who have spent more than a month on tenterhooks wondering whether they’ll ever have enough money to seek out a new home capable of caring for them in their twilight years, according to a long-time friend of one oldster.
“It’s definitely a big relief,” said Nancy Richardson, a pal of resident Annemarie Mogil, who is turning 94 this month. “We got worried that he would never make the payment.”
Landlord Haysha Deistch agreed to the handsome sum in June in order to end a years-long lawsuit over his attempts to boot the oldsters out of his tony Grand Army Plaza property — but he didn’t cough up the cash by his July 15 deadline, screwing residents who had already put down deposits on new places to live, according to Richardson.
Deitsch has been trying to empty the nine-story, 134-unit building and sell it to investment firm Sugar Hill Capital Partners for $84 million since 2014, but the transaction stalled after a handful of his residents refused to leave and sued to stay instead — kicking off a long and ugly court battle that became mired in sideshow litigation over accusations that he was trying to force the holdouts to leave by serving them moldy food, jacking up their rent, and cutting central air conditioning in summer.
The property mogul blamed Sugar Hill for the missed payment, saying he was strapped for cash and intended to use a $7-million deposit it had put down on the building to fund the settlement, but the investment firm forbade him from dipping into the fund, his lawyer Joel Drucker said at the time.
Sugar Hill’s honchos in turn accused Deitsch of crying poverty to secretly spend their moolah behind their backs.
Drucker declined to say how his client eventually scraped together the dough.
The $3.35 million will still not got straight to the seniors — it’s in an escrow account managed by Drucker, and they’ll get it if and when they leave the building by their own Oct. 10 deadline.
But even then, the government will take its share of the lump sum payment that’s supposed to see the seniors well-cared for in the future, according to Richardson.
“It’s a huge big lump sum,” she said, “so that means there’s a big tax bite.”
Paying the settlement effectively paves the way for the building’s sale to Sugar Hill, but Deitsch may want to settle up some other lawsuits first.
There are still $10 million worth of liens on the property tied to a series of wrongful death suits the families of late residents filed against him.
Reach reporter Colin Mixson at cmixs
on@cn
gloca
l.com
or by calling (718) 260-4505.
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