A hospital official confirmed that St. Vincent’s had entered into a contract to sell the two-building site on 51st Street between Ninth and 10th avenues to Tessler Development. (Bond Buyer reported earlier that the site was expected to sell.)

The new owner expects to maintain the existing exterior structure and to renovate the interior into apartments or dorms, according to a source at Tessler.

The hospital shuttered its doors this summer, eight months after a state task force on health care facilities, known as the Berger Commission, recommended closing it down to save money. For years, the hospital struggled financially amid rising operating costs.

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, the hospital, then known as St. Clare’s Hospital, had a busy AIDS treatment center that brought in a steady revenue stream. But in the late 1990’s, the proliferation of drugs that control H.I.V. curtailed the demand for such a service, financially straining the facility.

The hospital merged with St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, the chain that owns St. Vincent’s hospital in Greenwich Village, in 2003.