Mystery Buyer Drops $160M On Scandal-Laden Rivington House

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — The Rivington House — a hotbed of scandal in which a former HIV/AIDS medical care center was sold off to luxury developers after the city was paid off to lift a deed restriction — was sold.

A mystery buyer purchased it for about $160 million, property records show.

The buyer is veiled behind a limited liability company name, "Kranken House FH LP," which bought the building from Slate Property Group and its co-developers China Vanke and Adam America, first reported by The Real Deal.

"We are pleased with this outcome, and that we could work with Mt. Sinai on a long-term lease to ensure that Rivington House will remain a healthcare facility serving New Yorkers in need for decades to come," Evan Thies, spokesman for Slate, said in a statement.

Following a series of sales and a deed restriction being lifted, the Lower East Side health facility was nearly turned to luxury condos, until Mount Sinai Beth Israel announced it would lease the facility from Slate to relocate its behavioral health services to the building by 2022.

Under this week's sale, Mount Sinai's plans for a behavioral health center remain, a hospital representative confirmed.

Though some Lower East Siders want the property to be returned to a 24/7 nursing home as it was previously, the health facility was welcome in comparison to luxury condos.

But this week’s sale is yet another chapter in the neighborhood’s scandal.

About three years ago, the Allure Group, a for-profit nursing home provider, bought the building from its previous owner. It then paid $16 million to the city to lift a deed restriction requiring it to be a health facility — soon after selling it to Slate to make $72 million in profits.

Councilmember Margaret Chin called the sale "deeply upsetting," calling for the new owner to come forward.

"It is deeply upsetting that over and over again the real estate industry has used Rivington House as a profit-making venture, continuously playing hot potato with this property, and lining their own pockets at the expense of the community — while constantly keeping everyone in the dark," said Chin, who added she is working to hold Allure, the company that paid off the city to lift the deed restriction, accountable to a settlement with the Attorney General's office made in 2018.

"We need transparency now, and I demand the new owner to publicly come forward immediately and make a case to residents for how it will be a community partner," Chin said.