Exclusive preschool flees Extell site

New lease across the park infuriates parents

The new location of the Park Avenue Christian Church Day School at 4 West 76th Street and Gary Barnett
The new location of the Park Avenue Christian Church Day School at 4 West 76th Street and Gary Barnett

A posh preschool, formerly at the Park Avenue Christian Church site, has parents outraged after quietly relocating from the Upper East to the Upper West Side, signing a five-year Lease On West 76th Street.

The preschool, where notables such as Woody Allen, Bobby Flay and Lisa Kudrow have sent their young children, is apparently another casualty of a deal with Extell Development to covert the annex of the church at 1010 Park Avenue into a $50 million, 16-story residential tower.

The development filing came to light mere days after a deadline to pay 85 percent of the $20,000 yearly tuition for the preschool. Parents were promised full refunds and discounts for re-enrollment, but some 80 families are sending their children elsewhere, leading to a delayed opening of the school, according to the New York Post.

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“If it weren’t subject to these people who have at their heart only the interest of making tens of millions . . . we would have kept our son there,” an Upper East Side mother told the Post.

As The Real Deal previously reported, only the annex site at 1010 Park Avenue on the corner of East 85th Street will be converted, not the church building itself. The plan will, however, significantly expand the church from its current 9,546 to 104,579 square feet. [NYP]Christopher Cameron