The fate of Number Six

Medical practice could generate $1M in taxes; some residents oppose sale

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A 60-doctor, 30-speciality health care facility with up to 110 exam rooms is planned for the closed Number Six School if its sale to the Bronx-based Simone Development Company is approved by Lawrence School District voters in a public referendum on March 20.

The Lawrence Board of Education voted on Jan. 14 to sell the 6.67-acre school site and the 80,170-square-foot building in Woodmere to Simone Development for $12.5 million, subject to residents’ approval. Simone, whose bid was chosen over four others, plans to lease the property to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai Hospital, which would operate the health care facility.

Putting the property and building back on the tax rolls could generate up to $1 million in annual property taxes for the school district, the Town of Hempstead and Nassau County, officials said.

“From my perspective, especially post-Sandy, where expenses for the local municipalities — town, county and school district — could potentially break our budgets, the ability to have a set of shoulders to carry the burden would be beneficial to the community,” said Lawrence school board President Dr. Asher Mansdorf. The school district would receive about 65 percent of the property taxes, he said.

Mt. Sinai operates five other similar specialty medical practices. Four are in Suffolk County, and the other is the newly opened Brooklyn Heights Medical Group.

The Woodmere outpatient medical practice would operate Monday through Friday starting at 7:30 a.m., and from 9 to 5 on Saturday and Sunday, according to Dr. Simeon A. Schwartz, chief executive officer of Westmed Practice Partners in upstate Purchase, a consultant on the project. An urgent care center would close at 9 p.m.

In addition to primary-care physicians, there would be specialists in cardiology, dermatology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, hematology/oncology, nephrology, neurology, obstetrics-gynecology, ophthalmology, orthopedics, pediatrics, podiatry, rheumatology and general, plastic and vascular surgery.

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