An upscale retirement community in Port Washington, N.Y., has filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors for the second time in seven years, records show, Newsday reported. The Amsterdam at Harborside, a nonprofit opened in 2010, stopped making debt payments and refunds of resident entrance fees during the pandemic. As a result, the 329-unit facility is no longer in compliance with state law, according to documents filed last week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Central Islip. Amsterdam officials said on Tuesday that "there will be no staff layoffs or reduction or disruption" of services for the 375 people who live at the facility. In the filing, Amsterdam CEO James Davis said that the coronavirus had "exacerbated" the facility's "historic financial challenges" of not being able to attract enough new residents to pay day-to-day bills and the entrance-fee refunds owed to the relatives of deceased residents. The same challenges, along with the 2007-09 recession, led the Amsterdam to file for bankruptcy protection in July 2014, according to Newsday articles from the period. The retirement community, at 300 East Overlook, exited bankruptcy court in early 2015 after restructuring its debt, including tax-exempt bonds issued by the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency. The community also secured $550,000 in IDA property-tax breaks over nine years. That was on top of a 25-year tax deal awarded in 2007, the articles state. "Seven years ago, no one could have anticipated that a global pandemic would hit in 2020 and the effect it would have on our cash flow," Davis said on Tuesday in a statement.
