Rivington House Activists Prepare For Bill De Blasio Town Hall

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — Activists still outraged over last year's Rivington House scandal are gearing up for a town hall with Mayor Bill de Blasio next week, where they say they'll turn out in full force to push the mayor to halt all work on the property while investigations continue.

Last year, Rivington House, a protected nursing home on the Lower East Side, was sold to luxury developers for $116 million. The deal was made possible because a city agency quietly approved a deed change on the property, permitting the land to switch from not-for-profit use to for-profit use. Allure Group, the for-profit nursing home company that previously owned the property at 42 Rivington St., paid $16 million to get the land's deed restriction lifted, after which they flipped the real estate and sold it to developers for $116 million.

The controversial deal sparked outrage among community members, including the advocacy group Neighbors to Save Rivington House. (Want more local news? Subscribe here for free breaking news alerts and updates from Patch.)

Kathleen Webster, one of the group's founding members, said the organization is urging its members and supporters to come out in full force at Wednesday's town hall meeting to insist that de Blasio freeze all work on the property until various inquiries into the deal — including an investigation by the state attorney general — have been completed. The city issued a stop work order on the property last year, but in May it issued a permit to allow for "structural probes" on the property, including the "removal of selective areas of flooring, walls and ceiling finishes," according to city documents. These "structural probes" could amount to permanent damage on the property, Neighbors to Save Rivington House says, so they're asking de Blasio to completely halt all work on the property until the deal has been fully investigated.

Webster told Patch that the exploratory work that developers are currently permitted to do on the property could make the building "untenable or too costly to return to its original use."

In addition to Wednesday's town hall, the group has launched a 311 campaign to pepper the city hotline with demands to stop work at the property.

"We've just seen this pattern and practice of money pushing things in our community so we're trying to push back," Webster told Patch on Friday.

Lower East Side activists say they'll also take the opportunity to press the city on the its use of the Sara D. Roosevelt Park, the rectangular park that stretches from Houston Street to Canal Street. Webster, who is also president of the Sara D. Roosevelt Park Coalition, said she is also asking the city to repurpose the Stanton Building in the park as a public facility.

"We want this mayor to live up to his words," Webster said. "We're tired of the rhetoric, we want action that shows he intends to give public space back to the neighborhood."

Wednesday's town hall, which will also include Council Member Margaret Chin and Manhattan borough president Gale Brewer, is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.

Lead image via Drew Angerer / Staff / Getty Images News.