Port Washington senior complex rebrands as The Sinclair

The formerly financially troubled senior living facility in Port Washington known as The Harborside has a new name and a $28 million renovation plan. 

The property’s new owner, Chicago‑based Focus Healthcare Partners, which purchased the senior community for $86 million in May, has renamed it The Sinclair at Port Washington. Focus Healthcare also announced plans to invest $28 million in refreshing apartments, common areas, amenity spaces and improvements to infrastructure, mechanical system and grounds, according to a company statement. 

Other improvements will include a wellness center with therapy, fitness, and spa components, a new culinary program, on‑site movie theater, expanded outdoor recreation featuring pickleball and bocce courts, a dog park, a greenhouse, landscaped walking paths, and more, according to the statement. 

Opened in 2010, the $282-million Amsterdam at Harborside was built on 9 acres along West Shore Road, adjacent to the grounds of the Harbor Links Golf Course. The 226-apartment life-care community provided residents with guaranteed lifetime access to future long-term healthcare, with 56 private room/private bath skilled nursing residences, 18 special needs residences and 32 assisted living apartments. 

The Amsterdam at Harborside filed for its first bankruptcy in July 2014, with its ownership blaming a weak housing market for its troubles.  A month earlier, the owners convinced the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency to extend the 25-year property tax breaks the agency originally awarded the Amsterdam in 2007. 

The Amsterdam listed assets and liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million and between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors, some of whom are residents who paid $1 million or more to live there, according to court papers. 

In April 2023, the property then known as Harborside filed for bankruptcy for the third time, owing about $29 million in entrance-fee refunds to 30 residents and their families, according to published reports. 

Now managed by Chelsea Senior Living, the rebranded complex called The Sinclair now operates as a rental independent living community with no entrance fees and no long-term contracts, according to the statement. Monthly rents at The Sinclair start at about $7,500. 

The Sinclair takes its name from Nobel Prize-winning author Sinclair Lewis, who lived in Port Washington in the early 1900s. 

“While the location and fundamentals of the property have always been first-class, The Harborside struggled due to limited reinvestment following its bankruptcy nearly a decade ago,” Curt Schaller, co-founder and principal of Focus Healthcare Partners LLC. “The Sinclair’s no‑entrance‑fee rental model, Chelsea Senior Living’s operational excellence, and Focus Healthcare Partner’s $28 million investment commitment will combine to create a new high watermark for independent living on Long Island. The Sinclair at Port Washington will be the first and obvious choice for a financially flexible, service‑rich community that will empower residents to thrive and enjoy their golden years.” 

Focus Healthcare Partners has acquired about $1.2 billion in senior housing real estate assets since 2010. In June 2024, the company closed on a $370 million fund to target investments in private-pay senior housing. The Sinclair is its first Long Island property. 

Founded 35 years ago, Fanwood, N.J.-based Chelsea Senior Living operates 11 senior communities in New York and New Jersey, including two in Plainview, and other Long Island facilities in Rockville Centre and Yaphank.