Joe Marino/New York Daily News
Mayor de Blasio has made saving the hospital a priority.
Bidders for the cash-strapped Long Island College Hospital are getting a second opinion.
The State University of New York board restarted a controversial process to sell the hospital Wednesday — but only to the bidders who already submitted an offer.
Brooklyn officials and community leaders greeted the latest development at the money-losing hospital with skepticism. They are demanding SUNY go back to square one — to make it more transparent and give more groups a chance to apply.
“Brooklyn healthcare deserves better,” eight city and state electeds said in a joint statement. “Only an open process, with revised goals and criteria that prioritize healthcare, and provide genuine community representation in the decision-making process, can ensure the best possible healthcare outcome.”
Two key proposals that were cited by Gov. Cuomo both would each convert part of the space into luxury apartments and include outpatient medical care.
Earlier this month, the nearby Brooklyn Hospital Center said it would team with a developer to create 1,000 units of housing on the site — 350 of them affordable, the rest market rate — in a project that would include an outpatient medical facility with 24-hour emergency care.
The other major proposal under consideration, from the Fortis Property Group and Manhattan-based NYU Langone Medical Center, would replace the current full-service hospital with luxury condos and an outpatient facility that also includes an emergency medicine department.
The hospital’s fate became an issue in the mayoral race, when then-Public Advocate Bill de Blasio was arrested while protesting the planned closure of the money-losing hospital.
De Blasio opposed the Fortis plan during the campaign, saying it would replace too much of the LICH campus with luxury housing. Fortis then revised its proposal, teaming with NYU to expand the medical component.
The latest proposals must be submitted by Feb. 3.
rblau@nydailynews.com
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