Stop-Work Order for Scandal-Plagued Rivington House

With the state Attorney General and the City Comptroller already running investigations, the Department of Buildings has stepped into the spreading scandal over the Rivington House by placing a stop-work order on the former Lower East Side AIDS hospice that was recently sold to luxury condo developers.

The stop-work order, as first reported by the Bowery Boogie website, cites “Illegal conversion of commercial building/space to dwelling units.” The developers had already secured a permit for $1.5 million worth of interior demolition work on the red-brick building at 45 Rivington Street.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has been scrambling to contain the scandal, which began when the Allure Group, a for-profit care provider, paid the city $16 million to lift a deed restriction, which had required Rivington House to be used for non-profit health care in perpetuity. After promising to turn the property into a geriatric care facility, Allure promptly flipped the building to luxury condo developers at a $72 million profit.