Controversial Nursing Home Mogul Sells in Far Rockaway

Controversial nursing home mogul Ben Landa is back in the news, this time for offloading a Far Rockaway facility at a significant profit.

The Sentosa Care chief executive officer sold the 183-bed facility at 22-41 New Haven Avenue in the Queens neighborhood for $47.3 million, the Commercial Observer reported. The deal works out to more than $258,000 per bed.

A limited liability company connected to nursing home executives Robert and Norman Rausman was the buyer of the nursing home. The Rausmans are partners in other facilities, including the Northern Manhattan Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in East Harlem and the Manhattanville Health Care Center in the Bronx.

Forest Healthcare Properties’ Jeffrey Vegh and Joe Schiff brokered the deal for Landa. The Rausmans did not use a broker.

Landa bought the 49,000-square-foot facility for a mere $3 million in 2016 through his New Surfside Realty platform. He partnered on the four-story property acquisition with Robert Bleier, each retaining a 50 percent ownership stake.

Landa’s for-profit nursing home portfolio once encompassed at least two dozen portfolios. It’s also courted its fair share of bad headlines.

In March, Landa was one of several people found liable for patient neglect at Long Island’s Cold Spring Hills nursing home. He also allegedly misled state officials on the financing of the acquisition of the site. He owed $500,000 in restitution and was required to allow an independent overseer to monitor the facility’s operations.

The same facility played host to a lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James, who claimed its owners — including Brooklyn real estate investor Avi Philipson and his father, Bent Philipson — allegedly diverted government funds, resulting in severe understaffing and neglect of residents.

Prior to that, Sensota accumulated up to 20 federal fines for deficient care, according to a ProPublica investigation released in 2015.

— Holden Walter-Warner