East Massapequa, New York — A Long Island nursing home changed hands for nearly $50 million late last year, with the sale highlighting a pattern that critics say has become all too common in the industry: ownership structures so complex that residents and regulators can barely tell who’s running the place.
The 169-bed Parkview Care and Rehabilitation Center at 5353 Merrick Road in Massapequa was sold by nursing home magnate Bent Philipson in December, property records show. The buyer, Park View SNF Realty Group LLC, shares an address with Excelsior Care Group — a Brooklyn-based investor that had already picked up a Queens nursing home property for $75 million earlier this year.
The Parkview deal adds to Excelsior’s growing footprint. Industry reports show the group is now affiliated with 33 facilities across New York, New Jersey and Florida.
A Sale Shrouded in Complexity
Notably, the transaction involved only the building and land — not the operating license. The facility’s operator of record hasn’t changed, according to the New York State Department of Health. That split between real estate and operations is intentional, and it’s becoming standard practice.
“The nursing home industry has gotten very sophisticated and complex,” said Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition. “Transparency is pretty poor.”
The new property owner immediately took out a $23.9 million loan on the asset, on top of $14.4 million in existing debt on the property. Neither Excelsior Care Group’s Abraham Berkowitz, who appeared on mortgage documents, nor Philipson responded to requests for comment.
Who’s Really Behind the Wheel?
The sale comes as Philipson faces a bankruptcy filing tied to the Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation in Woodbury, a facility that has been embroiled in legal trouble since a 2022 lawsuit by the New York State Attorney General. In that case, a judge found the owners failed to properly care for residents and ordered $2 million in fines, though appeals are ongoing.
Previous investors in Parkview had included Benjamin Landa — a nursing home owner now in line to become the U.S. ambassador to Hungary. Landa said he’s no longer involved with the facility.
Separating property from operations, experts say, isn’t just a financial strategy. It also creates a legal buffer.
“It allows investors in the nursing home to protect the overall business in the case of a lawsuit,” Mollot explained. And it makes it harder to trace who’s actually accountable.
For-Profit Ownership Is Rising
The Parkview transaction reflects a broader shift in nursing home ownership. More than half of U.S. nursing homes changed hands during the pandemic, with for-profit operators increasingly absorbing facilities that were once run by nonprofits or local governments.
In New York alone, the share of nonprofit nursing homes dropped from 40.5% in 2010 to 30.6% a decade later, according to an Empire Center for Public Policy analysis. That same analysis found for-profit facilities tend to spend less on staff wages and benefits and receive lower federal quality ratings on average.
“While some for-profit homes deliver high quality care, on average, that category has lower ratings and lower staffing,” said Bill Hammond, a senior fellow at the Empire Center.
What Residents Don’t Know
Despite the transaction, daily life at Parkview isn’t expected to change immediately — at least on paper. But advocates argue the opacity built into deals like this one leaves families and residents with little way to know who’s ultimately responsible when something goes wrong.
As the for-profit model continues to reshape the industry across New York and the rest of the country, the Parkview sale may be one more reminder of how far ownership accountability still has to go.
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