60 Elderly Nursing Home Residents In Gentrifying Boston's North End Told To Get Ready To Pack Their Bags & Leave; Owner To Avoid Making Expensive Renovations, Announces Plans To Close Facility Instead; Surging Local Real Estate Values Provide Incentive To Unload Premises & Cash In While Leaving Trail Of Outraged Families

In Boston, Massachusetts, North End Waterfront.com reports:

• The 140-bed North End Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center owned by Partners Healthcare is planning to close in about a year, according to those familiar with the situation. Residents and families are currently being notified of plans to sell the property. Operated by Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, the nursing and therapy center is located at 70 Fulton Street, on the corner of Richmond, in Boston’s North End neighborhood.
  
  News of the closure has many North End and Downtown Boston families outraged as they scramble to consider options for their loved ones, mostly seniors and elderly, who live and receive nursing care at the facility. Taking to Facebook, several North End residents and family members are vowing to publicly oppose the move saying they “will not go down without a fight.”
  
  “Maybe the city should stop worrying about the stupid bike paths and worry about basic living,” said an infuriated grandson of a resident at the North End nursing home. Partners did not immediately respond with a comment, but staff members have told families the company is very likely to move forward with the sale. Another relative wrote on social media, “So where should our elderly go when living with family or on their own isn’t an option?”
  
  Surging real estate prices in the North End and Downtown Boston could encourage a developer to build luxury apartments or condominiums on the property. At this time, there is no word of a buyer nor even that the sales process has begun.
  
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  Families have been told that the facility is [] not meeting the owners economic needs and needs expensive renovations. [...] Many relatives of the sixty long-term residents receiving care at the nursing facility live or work in the area, making frequent visits convenient to their loved ones. The move of residents outside of downtown will make it that much more difficult for family and friends to stay connected. They believe the original promises that the facility would always serve North End seniors is being broken.

For more, see North End Nursing Home & Rehab Center to Close Leaving Elderly and Families in Lurch.

See also, Boston Herald: North End nursing home move blindsides relatives, patients (Fight on to keep seniors’ space).