Hadassah — the Jewish women’s philanthropic group that has been beset by turmoil in recent years — has sold its 60,500-square-foot headquarters at 50 West 58th Street. The sale, valued at $71.5 million, is expected to be approved at a meeting next month, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The buyer is an LLC, BOB 57, which the Journal said owns two adjacent buildings. Hadassah can stay in the building for three years, but eventually the headquarters will be razed to develop retail, office, hotel or condominium space, unnamed sources told the Journal.
In late 2008, Hadassah reported millions of dollars of losses, as a result of its investments with Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff. Reports that Sheryl Weinstein, Hadassah’s former chief financial officer, was having having an affair with Madoff, later emerged. More recently, allegations that Hadassah’s president Marcie Natan and past President Nancy Falchuk employed organizational assets for personal use arose. (An investigation conducted by the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP found that the allegations were not supported.)
Natan said the group isn’t in financial trouble and didn’t need to sell the building to pay trustee Madoff bankruptcy trustee Irving Picard, whom the group already gave $45 million. She told the Journal that they received an unexpected offer of $5 million to $6 million more than the building’s value. [WSJ]