On hold
The sale of Covenant at South Hills has been postponed two weeks as residents and other creditors hammer out the final details of a deal with a potential buyer.
Concordia Lutheran Ministries was the only qualified bidder at a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court on Thursday before Judge Judith Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald previously scheduled an auction for the B’nai B’rith sponsored senior living facility on Sept. 3, but re-scheduled the sale for Sept. 17 to give the parties time to finalize a deal.
Concordia, a nonprofit, submitted a $15 million all-cash bid. Under the terms of the proposal, Covenant residents would lose the entirety of their entrance deposits — in some cases as much as $330,000 — and would no longer be served by a kosher kitchen.
Another potential for-profit buyer, LifeCare of the South Hills, did not have sufficient financing in place to support its prior bid of $17 million. LifeCare of the South Hills is an affiliate of West Virginia-based The Orchards at Foxcrest.
At Thursday’s hearing, Fitzgerald also ruled that the Court would consider any additional qualified buyers that submitted bids by Sept. 14, if those bids exceeded Concordia’s $15 million offer. That move came at the request of Steven Diaz, an attorney representing his mother, a resident of Covenant. Diaz’s appearance Thursday was his first in the case.
“The Court today demonstrated a high sensibility to a need to do the best possible thing for all of the parties, including the residents, and demonstrated flexibility to allow a qualified bidder with a better offer to come forward at this late hour,” Diaz said.
“The residents would have lost essentially everything if this matter had concluded today,” Diaz continued. “So, in the next two weeks, nothing adverse to their interests will happen, but something positive might happen.”
See next week’s edition of The Chronicle for the full story.
(Toby Tabachnick can be reached at tobyt@thejewishchonicle.net.)
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