It looks like residents and employees of the Bialystoker nursing home on East Broadway were right.  In the past couple of weeks, they learned that the facility, which has served the Lower East Side for 80 years, is shutting down. During a rally yesterday, protesters expressed fears that the non-profit organization’s board is determined to turn the site into a luxury apartment complex.

Today a reader of The Lo-Down points us to the following real estate listing on the Grubb Ellis web site, for 222-230 East Broadway:

Grubb Ellis New York, Inc. has been engaged as exclusive agent by Bialystoker Center and Bikur Cholim, Inc. to offer for sale the fee-simple interest in 222-226 and 228-230 East Broadway, New York, NY. Situated at the corner of East Broadway and Clinton Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Property currently consists of a private park and nursing home facility that is in the process of ceasing operations. The approximately 11,886-square-foot land area on which these lie will therefore be available for development; under current zoning the site can accommodate a residential development of up to 71,554 square feet or 77,259 square feet with a community facility component. Any new development constructed on the Property will benefit from superb light and air exposure—a result of the Property’s placement along two wide streets, low-rise nature of most surrounding structures and favorable positioning of the neighboring Seward Park Cooperative. These location-based factors, in conjunction with many other complimentary conditions, make 222-230 East Broadway a highly desirable development site. Being that the nursing home is closing, it will need adequate time to completely discontinue operations. As such, the purchaser will be required to enter into an 18-month license agreement with the home until full closure occurs. While the closing period could be as short as 6 to 12 months, an 18-month allocation for closure is required.

The listing does not mention an adjacent property, 232 East Broadway, a three story office building sold by the Bialystoker home last year to a real estate firm headed by Ira Meister, the chairman of the nursing home’s board.

Yesterday, Marilyn Da Silva, Bialystoker’s administrator, said she could not comment about the nursing home’s closure. She said a press statement would by released as soon as it is approved by the state Department of Health.