State signs off on LICH sale; NYU takes over ER

The deal is done. Long Island College Hospital (LICH) has been sold by the state to real estate developer Fortis Property Group for $240 million.

Fortis’ healthcare partner NYU Langone Medical Center took over what is left of LICH’s Emergency Department — the only part of the 43-acre medical complex that remains — on Friday, October 31.

The ED will now be known as NYU Langone-Cobble Hill.

It will eventually be built out into a 125,000-square-foot freestanding emergency department  that will cost $175 million and have a staff of 400 – 70 of them doctors. It will also restore ambulance service for the neighborhood. It is anticipated that once ambulance service resumes, 35 to 50 patients a day will be serviced.

It will have a 20-year-guarantee for medical use and, in addition to the 24-hour emergency department, will include an urgent care center, ambulatory surgery center, primary and preventative care center, cancer center, diagnostic imaging and other specialized care, and HIV clinic.

The center is planned to be complete by 2018.

The rest of the property will be transformed by Fortis into a combination residential/healthcare campus, with condominiums, at least 25 percent designated affordable housing.

The state’s approval came on Tuesday, October 28, just two days after Brooklyn residents rallied in Cobble Hill in a last-ditch show of resistance to the condo plan and advocacy for LICH to remain a full-service hospital.