The court-approved buyer of the Northwoods Rehabilitation and Extended Care network is moving to install at the nursing homes a new interim administrator, who is expected to put them through an overhaul and prepare them for a permanent operator.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Littlefield approved on Aug. 28 the $23.3 million sale of four upstate Northwoods facilities to Benjamin Landa, a Brooklyn investor who holds interests in several downstate nursing homes. Landa, a co-owner of the Woodmere-based Sentosa Care, in mid-August outbid a New Jersey nursing home administrator who also wanted to acquire the assets from Highgate LTC Management, who filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in April 2007.
Landa, whose Sentosa network has 19 nursing homes in New York City and Long Island, plans to lease the Northwoods facilities in Niskayuna, Schaghticoke, East Greenbush and Cortland. But first he wants to replace the temporary administrator, or receiver, a Rensselaer County Supreme Court judge installed in November 2006, following General Electric Capital Corp.’s foreclosure on Highgate.
“Mr. Landa will be a landlord. He will have no involvement in the management of the operation,” said Marvin Tenzer, Landa’s attorney.
Tenzer expects the state Department of Health to decide on Northwoods’ proposed receiver, Esther Farkovitz. She would replace the Long Hill Alliance Co., the Shelton, Conn. administrator that has run the 512-bed nursing home network for almost two years.
“I do expect to see significant improvements” in patient care at Northwoods following Farkovitz’s receivership, Tenzer said, adding, “The staff will be maintained.”
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Categories: Business
