Mount-ing Sinai fight
Activists rally against plan to shut eye, ear infirmary
THE battle is on to dissuade — or prevent — Mount Sinai Health System from closing the historic New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, which it’s likely to sell to a developer after it scatters the infirmary’s units to the Manhattan winds.
A group of doctors, preservationists and elected officials has set a news conference for Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. at Village Preservation at 232 E. 11th St. to demand city action to block the plan.
The Post first reported June 15 on Mount Sinai’s apparent goal of breaking up the 200-year-old infirmary’s departments, including its surgical and clinical units, and relocating them to other Mount Sinai facilities around Manhattan.
Infirmary insiders had told us that Mount Sinai was stealthily moving physicians, lab facilities and other departments out of the building so that it could clear the deck for a possible sale.
We reported that a sale of the historic, century-old building at 218 Second Ave. and a more modern one next door at 310 E. 14th St. that is also part of the infirmary could fetch up to $70 million based on current values for residential development.
One doctor said at the time, “Mount Sinai is going to close this building and make whatever they can on it.”
Crain’s recently carried details of how Mount Sinai would relocate infirmary units, but the hospital system again declined to comment on its plans for 218 Second Ave.
The weathered, old building was the setting for the memorable scene in “The Godfather” in which Al Pacino rescues Marlon Brando’s Don Corleone character from assassination.
A city landmark designation would prevent a new owner from demolishing the structure.
Tuesday’s news conference will be attended by Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation director Andrew Berman, infirmary doctors and staff members, District 74 state Assembly Member Harvey Epstein and other elected officials.
Edelman renews lease
As Manhattan’s physical office occupancy continues to fluctuate around 41%, as per Kastle Systems’ Back-to-Work Barometer, it seems counterintuitive that many companies show no sign of cutting back their space.
In one of this year’s largest rebuttals to the “work from home” panic, public relations consulting giant Edelman just renewed on 173,618 square feet for 15 years at Jack Resnick & Sons’ 250 Hudson St. The firm has been there for 13 years — “one of the best decisions we’ve made,” said CEO Richard Edelman.
The renewal is more impressive given that companies in the media and marketing fields such as Edelman supposedly lend themselves to WFH more than financial-services firms do.
The 1932-vintage former printing trades building was converted into a Class-A office property in 2009 for $40 million.
Resnick was a pioneer in transforming the Hudson Square area, once a center of printing and manufacturing, into a modern office destination. Resnick also recently redeveloped 315 Hudson St., which is now mainly leased to Google.
CBRE’s Mary Ann Tighe, Ken Meyerson, Todd Lippman and
Adele Huang repped Edelman in the lease renewal. Adam Rappaport and Brett Greenberg repped Resnick in-house.
LES spot for sale
A piece of Lower East Side nightlife history is up for grabs. The owners of the building that was home to restaurant/nightspot Stanton Social, at 99 Stanton St., are asking for $5.9 million via B6 Real Estate Advisors’ Jonathan Buerger and Stephen Dadourian.
The 4,950-square-foot property has been vacant since Stanton Social closed in 2018. The one-time hot spot drew the likes of Matt Damon, Adrian Grenier, Sofia Vergara and Amy Schumer. The listing might appeal to operators of a restaurant, club, art gallery or studio. The building was previously a funky theater known as House of Candles.