New York Cancer Center Plans to Transform Former Hospital

SKI Realty, an affiliate of New York City’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), is paying $83.1 million for the former Cabrini Medical Center’s four-building complex on Manhattan’s East Side. A state health care commission in 2006 recommended the closing of Cabrini and four other New York City hospitals. Cabrini filed for bankruptcy in July 2009. The facility, which extends half a city block and is comprised of nearly 400,000 square feet of above-grade area, plus approximately 54,000 square feet of below-grade space, served as a 455-bed hospital until it closed in March 2008 due to financial problems.

The sale has been approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, according to Grubb & Ellis, which represented Cabrini in the transaction. Pending regulatory approval, MSKCC says that it intends to renovate and convert the property to an outpatient cancer center. Prior to bankruptcy, Cabrini was part of a growing number of financially besieged New York health care facilities. Caritas Healthcare auctioned off its hospital campuses in Queens for $26.25 million last October.