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From the
Queens Chronicle:
Fractured windows at the desultory Holliswood Hospital building and garbage strewn across its grounds starkly contrast with the neighborhood’s idyllic suburban homes.
Sixty-five thousand and five hundred dollars in Department of Buildings violations have been issued at the property, which is at 87-37 Palermo St. More than $600,000 in property taxes are owed.
Illegal trespassing inside the hospital, which closed in 2013, is shown in a YouTube video from last October. A young man throws an object at a hospital window from one of its rooms in the video; another part of the footage shows someone wielding a flame that does not appear to burn any of the structure, despite visible danger.
“We’re in the process of trying to find out who they are,” Linda Valentino of the Holliswood Civic Association told the Chronicle. “The 107th Precinct is working on it.”
The site is owned by Steve Cheung. “What he wants to do is build 20 homes,” the civic activist said. “We feel, and it’s just an opinion, that this guy is looking to sell the thing.”
Although a Queens civic activist familiar with the real estate transactions and development said that a developer he knows visited the site — and that it’s on the market —Cheung denied that.
“We’re planning to develop it,” he said.
A plan to divide the property into 22 separate lots was disapproved by the Department of Buildings.
From the
Queens Tribune:
The long-vacant Holliswood Hospital at 87-37 Palmero St. in Hollis is going through court hearings for two Department of Buildings “unsafe buildings” violations, according to the Department of Buildings.
The building received an “unsafe building” violation in November of 2015, when it was determined that the building was left open, vacant and unguarded. It received the second violation this past August, according to the DOB spokesperson.
Court documents filed on Sept. 20 with the Queens Civil Supreme Court show that the specific complaints are that “many of the windows, rear and side doors are broken/open and accessible,” and that the “equipment room door at rear of property is open and accessible.” The building has had two hearings so far—one on Nov. 23 and the other yesterday, Nov. 30. An unsafe-building violation can be dismissed if the work is done to correct the unsafe condition and a new DOB inspection finds no violating conditions, according to the DOB spokesperson.
The defunct hospital has been the center of controversy in the Hollis community for at least a year, and neighbors have repeatedly cited the building as a hazard. The former drug rehabilitation center shut down in 2013 and was purchased by Flushing-based developer Steve Cheung in July 2015. In that time, the hospital has sat vacant, often with wide-open doors and broken windows.
Linda Valentino, president of the Holliswood Civic Association, says that some neighbors have reported questionable people entering the unsecured hospital. She added that other neighbors have reported a serious mold problem—the consequence of severe flooding after the sprinklers in the building’s top floor burst and saturated the whole building with water.
From the
Queens Tribune:
Plans for a residential development at the former Holliswood Hospital at 87-37 Palermo Street have been met with tepid reviews by the Holliswood Civic Association.
State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) broke the details of developer Steve Cheung’s plans to the Holliswood Civic board on Dec. 16, at a joint meeting with Cheung and the site’s architect, after two years of suspense over the site’s future.
The plans involve construction of 20 residential homes as well as a larger apartment complex with 31 units on the property. Cheung could develop all of the lots, or some of them could be sold to private owners.
The individual homes will not have garages and will be in accordance with the local zoning, whereas the apartment complex would require a variance.
The Holliswood Civic Association identified a couple of concerns pertaining to the new development, according to an email from the Civic Association forwarded to the Queens Tribune.
“Overall, the proposal for the site would contribute to more congestion, noise and pollution,” wrote the email’s author.
The 20, presumably identical, residential homes would also create a “cookie-cutter” image, the email said.
It also stated that Cheung expected the homes to sell for $2.7 million, which the civic board thought was an unrealistically high asking price.
From the
Queens Tribune:
The Holliswood Hospital property may be turned into condos and luxury single family homes, one source – a resident who lives near the former hospital – said. The news comes after some neighbors, including members of the Holliswood Civic Association, have been on tenterhooks for the past two years over what the former rehabilitation center for drug users might become.
The lot has been empty since the former hospital shut down in August 2013 due to bankruptcy. On July 7, an LLC associated with Queens Developer Steve Cheung, 3861 Realty, bought the property for $10.9 million.
According to the source, Cheung called Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Fresh Meadows) on Sunday night and informed him that he was planning to build condo apartments and approximately 15 single-family luxury houses.
Weprin confirmed the call on Tuesday. “I think it is something the community would be accepting of and support,” he said of the alleged plans.
Cheung said that he and his architect had not yet solidified plans. “As soon as we have a decision, we’ll let you know,” Cheung told the Queens Tribune on Monday.
But asked about the planned construction quoted in the reported call with Weprin, Cheung did not deny the plans, saying simply, “We try.”
From the
Queens Courier:
Health care in the borough continues to flatline one facility at a time, with Holliswood Hospital the latest to shutter its doors.
The 127-bed private psychiatric hospital in Jamaica closed on Monday, August 12 due to financial troubles, said a hospital official. Current patients will begin to be discharged, and after an estimated one to two weeks, the site will close permanently.
After Holliswood shuts off the lights, nearly 400 employees will have to look for work elsewhere, according to the borough president’s office. Some already have replacement jobs, but others do not, said hospital security guard Leroy Walker.
Walker, who has worked at the center for eight years, said the staff was informed on Friday, August 2 that the facility will close in less than two weeks.
Holliswood Hospital will let 376 employees go, including nurses, mental health technicians, nurse practitioners, occupational therapists, pharmacists, psychologists and more. The largest single group consists of 58 registered nurses, said the borough president’s office.
Starting in April, Holliswood began negotiating with PSCH, Inc., a local nonprofit provider, to receive interim financing for the facility. However, the parties were unable to resolve “certain substantive deal terms and terminated negotiations” in late July, according to hospital officials.
Without additional funds, the facility “did not have the financial resources to keep the hospital open.”
This is the sixth hospital to close in the borough in the last decade following Parkway, St. John’s Queens, Mary Immaculate, Peninsula and St. Joseph’s.
From the
Daily News:
The only hospital on the Rockaway Peninsula is in critical condition after the closure of units and growing uncertainty surrounding the facility’s finances.
The 257-bed St. John’s Episcopal Hospital recently outsourced several of its clinics and closed its detox unit as cost-saving measure — and union and hospital officials will protest Wednesday outside the Far Rockaway medical center to slam the management’s “short-sided” approach to fixing its balance sheet.
“If you keep chopping away at services and staffing, quality is going to suffer,” said nurse Iona Folkes.
The hospital’s dialysis unit could also shutter, union officials said.
If the hospital closes, Rockaway residents would have to venture to Jamaica Hospital, Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, or South Shore Hospital in Long Island in an emergency.
They're also
closing immunization clinics.
