Last Hurdle Before Hospital Sale Crossed; Transaction Scheduled for Tuesday

The Hoboken City Council unanimously with the new buyer of the Hoboken University Medical Center on Sunday night, finally fully paving the way for the hospital sale to close.

The transaction is expected to happen on Tuesday.

Although the parking agreement passed already, the hospital sale hadn't gone through yet, because the city council didn't approve the immediate implementation last week, after the council minority didn't approve it.

"This was the crisis point," Zimmer said. She added to the council, "let's move ahead and complete the sale."

The parking agreement was the last necessary step, held up the sale longer than expected.

The 8-0 (Councilwoman Theresa Castellano was absent) vote happened after a roughly two-hour public session during which members of the public—mostly supporters of the Hospital sale as well as the mayor—and employees of HUMC spoke up, urging the council to approve the agreement so that the sale could happen.

"The parking arrangement is the key to the sale," said George Hirsch, a lawyer present on Sunday who spoke on behalf of the creditors' committee. "

Last week Councilwoman Beth Mason, who voted against the implementation of the parking agreement, which terms include a 99-year lease and a reduced parking rate of $45 a month for the first three years, said last week that she'd start a petition drive to have the people decide the matter in a referendum. 

A few hours before the meeting, the council minority—made up of council members Castellano, Mason, Michael Russo and Tim Occhipinti—announced it had reached an agreement with hospital buyer HUMC Holdco LLC. (the letter from Holdco to the four council members is attached to this article).

While the letter—which includes, among other things, that the city of Hoboken will get a spot on the hospital board—was the reason for the council minority to vote for the parking agreement, Council President Ravi Bhalla said multiple times that he didn't think the agreement is legally binding, calling it a "political stunt" and "unenforcable."

The roughly 160 people in council chambers burst out into applause after the council unanimously voted "yes" on the agreement that evolves around 1,000 transponders for hospital personnel.

After the meeting, Zimmer said in a statement, "The effort to save our hospital has been a long road, but today our community saved it together."