By Cynthia Koons
Michael Fagan, a spokesman for St. Vincent's, said the property was sold to Galway Properties, which does not have definitive plans for the future of the parcel at 158-40 79th Ave. Galway did not return calls for comment.Fagan said he did not know how much St. Vincent's made from the sale of St. Joseph's Hospital, which has relocated its services to other Queens hospitals in the system, Mary Immaculate in Jamaica and St. John's in Elmhurst. The St. Joseph's walk-in clinic that was going to be maintained in the community will not be operated in Flushing or Fresh Meadows. Instead those patients will be redirected to the other Queens facilities.St. Joseph's hospital went on the market after a lengthy battle, fought by workers and community activists, to keep the facility open.”It's really depressing, not only to me as the former chair of the advisory board but as the president of the local civic association that the hospital was located in. We feel devastated,” said Ken Cohen, a community activist who protested the hospital's closing. “It's totally been against the wishes of the community. The state of health not only in the city but the state is deteriorating.”In November 2003, St. Vincent's began laying off nurses at St. Joseph's in order to cut costs at the Queens institution.Faced with declining revenues, St. Vincent's set a goal of cutting $55 million across its hospital system in 2003. As part of that, 25 of St. Joseph's 463 employees were laid off.But that was not enough to save the hospital.Soon after, St. Vincent's announced it was looking for a new operator for the Flushing hospital, which is one of four that it operates in Queens and Brooklyn. At the time, hospital statistics showed that only 75 of the 106 beds in St. Joseph's were being used on a regular basis. Officials said it would cost $40 million to renovate St. Joseph's and bring it up to modern standards. The 43-year-old hospital has units for psychiatric in-patients as well as specialized facilities for eye, wound and foot care. St. Vincent's promised its employees that the parent company would do its best to keep workers within the system if St. Joseph's officially closed.By July 2004, no operator had stepped up to take over the facility so the hospital went on the market.Cohen said the property was zoned for residential housing and added that a developer would face a tough battle in trying to build a large-scale commercial complex there.”They'd have to go through a variance. I know this community is ready to put up a fight for anything other than keeping it (residential),” Cohen said. “We seem to have been getting a lot of practice in fighting. We'll be really experienced in time for the variance process.” Reach reporter Cynthia Koons by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 141.
