Embattled Park Slope Elder Home, Free of Final 5 Seniors, Sells for Whopping $84M

PROSPECT PARK, BROOKLYN — Sugar Hill Capital Partners has purchased the Prospect Park Residence Retirement Community for $84 million, the company confirmed Thursday. The sale was first reported by The Real Deal.

Barbara Wagner, a spokeswoman for Sugar Hill, declined to comment on the future of the massive Park Slope property, located at 1 Prospect Park West, though it's widely expected to be converted into a condo building.

The building was purchased for $40 million in 2006 by Haysha Deitsch, according to Crain's. Sugar Hill reportedly then offered $76.5 million to take it off his hands.

However, a group of five seniors refused to leave, claiming that Deitsch was attempting to illegally force them out so he could complete the sale — in part by allowing the building's internal conditions to deteriorate.

This past summer, the residents settled with Deitsch for about $3.5 million, agreeing to leave by Sep. 1. That deadline, however, was backed up to Oct. 10, after Deitsch failed to make his first payment to the seniors. (The developer, in turn, blamed Sugar Hill for allegedly failing to make one of its own payments.)

Attorneys for the five remaining residents couldn't immediately be reached on Thursday, but a source told Patch that the building is now empty. WNYC recently wrote about two of the remaining women, Alice Singer and Annemarie Mogil, both of whom are moving to a home in Manhattan.

"What happened has led to shortened lives and tremendous grief and to me I can’t imagine anyone wanting to live here," Alice Singer's daughter Joyce told the station, referring to the years-long struggle over the fate of the building. "I think there are ghosts in these halls."

Pictured at top: The Prospect Park Residence. Photo by John V. Santore