Fortis Closes On LICH Site; Brooklyn Heights MD Says Medical Facility “Totally Inadequate”

By on July 28, 2015 4:53 pm in Cobble Hill, Development, Health, News, Real Estate

Curbed reports that the purchase of the Long Island College Hospital site by Fortis Property Group, which intends to develop the site as a mixed residential, commercial, and medical area, possibly including a school, has finally closed.

The Curbed piece also quotes Brooklyn Heights physician Dr. Jon Berall as calling the medical facility planned for the site “totally inadequate.” The facility, which will consist of an emergency room (already in operation, as your correspondent, who had a facial laceration stitched up there a month ago, can testify), two inpatient beds, and a cancer center, is, according the Dr. Berall, “what is [found] in war zones or in rural America, not in sophisticated Downtown settings.”

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  • Roberto Gautier

    How does the stripping of a populated neighborhood of a much-needed medical center (LICH) make any sense? Why would a highly-rated and much-respected hospital be replaced with nothing! Why does Mayor Di Blasio, to pick one official out of the hat, remain silent as thousands of people are placed at risk? The sale of LICH is a genuine homeland security issue.

  • Jorale-man

    Not sure if an open-thread Wednesday is the better place for this observation but since that’s not up yet: It’s interesting how most of the BHB homepage right now is about what could be very dramatic changes to the area in the years ahead. Real estate development is clearly the number-one issue facing Brooklyn Heights, even though we are (fortunately) protected as a historic district.

    But the renderings of these massive, out-of-scale high-rises on all sides of the neighborhood really do portend to a new reality, one in which traffic, subways, schools, small businesses and other facets of the area will all be dramatically affected in the years to come. It’s going to be an interesting few years ahead.

  • Roberto Gautier

    It’s now commonplace to hear “this is the end of Brooklyn” as a reaction to Jorale-man’s accurate description of the “new reality.”

  • Love Laner

    Not to mention these massive new buildings will be casting literal shadows on the neighborhood thanks to their height…

    As for decreasing numbers of small businesses, that’s something I’ve noticed occurring in the city as a whole the past five years. How many Subway sandwich shops does this city need?

  • Andrew Porter

    What’s fascinating to me is the amount of high-rise development slowly encircling our Landmarked neighborhood. The Heights used to be called a walled area because of the warehouses on Furman Street, but we’re now seeing the massive build-up in DUMBO, Downtown Bklyn, and the 360 Furman/Pier 6 high-rise enclave.

  • Andrew Porter

    And now the old Rite-Aid on Montague will become another Duane-Reade, joining the D-R at the next corner, on Court, and the D-R on Court and Joralemon.

    The blog Jeremiah’s Vanishing NY has long noted this disturbing trend, as chain stores replace small businesses everywhere in NYC.

  • Andrew Porter

    Here’s a photo of how that area used to look in the 1950s. Compare it with the one at the top:

  • TeddyNYC

    I really hope that those buildings are cut in size, not more than 15 floors. That rendering above looks like a nightmare come true. Keep high-rises like that confined to Downtown.

  • Remsen Street Dweller

    De Blasio doesn’t just remain silent — he helped push through the sale of LICH to Fortis — that is, after he feigned getting arrested to save LICH in order to up his presence in the mayoralty race.