A Queens nursing home has changed hands for roughly $56 million, city property records show.
Rego Park Health Care, located at 111-26 Corona Avenue, was sold by CEO Nelson Tuchman to a limited liability company owned by Israel Nachfolger, who operates nursing homes in Maine, Massachusetts and New York, according to property records released Friday. Israel Nachfolger, CEO of Pinnacle Group of Hudson Valley, purchased the 200-bed residential building and two adjacent lots where the nursing home will continue to operate, he said in an email to Crain’s.
The nursing home is leasing the space from its new landlord, but the business will remain unchanged. There are no plans yet to develop the two adjacent lots, one of which is currently being used as a parking lot, Nachfolger said.
Rego Park Health Care has operated as an independent nursing home since it was founded in 1972, according to its website. Tuchman bought the six-story facility for $3.3 million in 2008, and owned the facility in conjunction with Herbert and Morris Tuchman and Ruth Adler, according to Health Department filings.
The facility provides 24-hour nursing care, short-term rehabilitation services and physical therapy, as well as respite care that offers temporary relief to primary caregivers. Rego Park has lower staffing levels than other New York nursing homes, providing 3.3 hours of care per resident each day compared to the state’s average of 3.7 hours, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The facility also has a nurse turnover rate of approximately 49%, meaning that almost half of nurses stopped working at the facility in a year-long period. The statewide nurse turnover rate is 42%, according to Propublica.
Now, Pinnacle Group Hudson Valley will take over the space. The company owns approximately 10 nursing homes on the East Coast and five in New York, said Nachfolger, who is a registered nurse and paramedic.
Nursing homes in New York have faced significant financial and operational challenges in recent years because of what the industry says are low Medicaid reimbursements and staffing shortages. The lack of funding has led dozens of nursing homes statewide to close within the past decade, according to lawmakers and the industry, and has prompted some owners to sell their facilities.
