Pel Grand owner’s other assist homes

By David Cruz

The building owner of Pelham Bay’s temporary supportive housing facility is no stranger to helping the borough’s underserved – for a profit.

The five-story building at 1870 Pelham Parkway South is now home to 62 mentally ill tenants temporarily displaced by Hurricane Sandy from their damaged Queens residence.

Moujan Vahdat, a billionare head of a Manhattan satellite communications firm, manages the building under East 110th Street Realty LLC, one of many LLCs he’s set up. A shoddy website of the LLC has no working number except for a fax machine.

Building records show Vahdat spent years setting up assisted living facilities in the Bronx and elsewhere. He owns a family shelter at 587 Wales Avenue in Melrose and another facility for those living with HIV/AIDS in East Harlem under different LLC. He once owned a home for mentally disabled people at 1812 Andrews Ave. South in West Farms.

He took ownership of the Pelham Parkway building in 2006 after prior owner, Our Lady of Mercy Hospital, was bought by Montefiore Medical Center.

Nathan Plummer soon leased Vahdat’s building, converting it into the Plummer Pavilion, a luxury senior-assisted living facility that failed to draw occupants with its $4,000-$5,000 rents.

Vahdat then converted the building into a high-end apartment building, while keeping the required amenities for a supportive housing complex.

At the Jan. 17 Community Board 10 meeting, Dr. Yves Ades of Services for the UnderServed indicated the building had been “rehabbed for an assisted living facility,” complete with a sprinkler system and emergency panic doors.

A spokesman for Vahdat did not return comment.

David Cruz can be reach via e-mail at DCruz@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 742-3383