Manhattan Country School, a progressive private school on the Upper West Side, has shut down and its building is now poised to go on the market.
The schoolhouse at 150 West 85th Street was most recently appraised at $39 million in 2021, according to bankruptcy documents first reported by PincusCo. KTR Real Estate Partners conducted the appraisal, according to filings.
Albert Togut, the bankruptcy trustee for the building owner, told The Real Deal he plans to sell the schoolhouse and has engaged commercial real estate broker Bob Knakal of BKREA to do so.
“It’s a beautiful building [that] I hope can be bought by another school,” Togut said via email. “Of course, I will entertain offers from whomever.”
Manhattan Country School has spent the last year fighting collapse. But when it bought the schoolhouse in 2015, it was hoping for an expansion.
The school, most recently home to 250 students from kindergarten to eighth grade, saw applications rise in the mid-2010s, The New York Times reported. But its building at that time, on East 96th Street, was only about 14,000 square feet. A bigger building could house more amenities, attracting more families and growing tuition revenue.
Manhattan Country School purchased the Upper West Side building from The New School, which housed its music college at the site. Knakal’s team also brokered that deal.
The six-story elevator building was built in 1928, according to appraisal documents.
To pay for the acquisition and renovations, Manhattan Country School drained its endowment and borrowed about $20 million through tax-exempt bonds, according to reporting from Bloomberg.
But expansion plans were stymied by the pandemic.
The school had prided itself on educating low-income students along with their wealthier peers, charging each what they could afford to pay. The curriculum emphasized equity and sustainability. Students had access to a 180-acre farm in Roxbury, New York, that cost about $1 million per year to operate, according to bankruptcy filings.
But some wealthier students moved away or chose other schools as the school remained remote through 2021, the Times reported. Administrators were unable to raise tuition in response.
Queens-based Flushing Bank held the debt. Last October, it filed for foreclosure on the building.
The school was keeping the lights on with loans from members of its board, along with student deposits from the upcoming school year.
The school filed for bankruptcy in May. The entity that co-owns the building followed in filing this week. Initial bankruptcy documents list about $3.8 million in debt owed directly to Flushing Bank, with about $25 million owed to the bank through a trustee.
The school attempted to stave off immediate collapse with another loan in May, this one $8 million provided by a foundation called Casa Laxmi at a 12 percent annual interest rate.
But the lender required repayment before other creditors. The bank objected, noting that the Casa Laxmi’s CEO had taken control of the school’s board. A bankruptcy judge rejected the loan proposal.
An attorney representing Manhattan Country School in bankruptcy proceedings did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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