Last week, however, after taking stock of their sales, the group decided that the retirement community is no longer a viable option, and stopped selling apartments.
   Gerald Hart, the CEO of the Tietz Center, said the decision came after this past September saw much of the nation’s economy shredded.
   “Everything was moving along as it should, but after that time period we really started to feel the crunch of the economy,” Hart said. “We took a look back and we decided to be conservative and cautious — right now just wasn’t the right time for this project.”
   Hart said he’s optimistic the project can still go forward at some point in the future, but while the economy is still in a recession, the group is unable to find enough apartment buyers to what was already an ambitious project.
   In order to begin construction, retrofitting the hospital building to house apartments, Hart said 70 percent of the proposed units would have to be pre-sold — a number that represents just over 100 apartments.
   At the end of September, Hart admitted, they were only halfway to their goal, having sold roughly 50 units.
   Skyline Commons was scheduled to open in 2009, but construction never started. Hart said the buyers who had already purchased one of the units would receive any money they had used as a down payment, plus interest.
   Ultimately, Hart said, the Tietz Center is hopeful that the new administration in Washington, D.C. can work to put some bailout money toward helping healthcare facilities, and turn the nation’s economy around, but until that happens, Skyline Commons will have to wait.
   “It’s a great model; this model works and it takes people off Medicaid, which is the biggest expenditure in the New York State budget,” Hart said. “I’m optimistic we can do this again sometime.”