Land sold in Sunrise to become charter school

A 10-acre land deal was recently completed in Sunrise, and the buyer plans to build a charter school dubbed Franklin Academy on the site.

The land, at 10199 Northwest 44th Street, in the Sunrise Commercial Park, was owned by the HealthSouth Sunrise Rehabilitation Hospital, which is across the street.

The buyer was a company titled A.P. Properties, and it paid $3.6 million for the property — roughly $1 million more than the land’s assessed value, according to Broward County property records.

Reese Stigliano of Brenner Real Estate Group represented HealthSouth in the sale.

Stigliano said in a release that the property had been under contract for about 10 months, pending an approval of the school’s site plans from the city of Sunrise.

“Site plan approval is not an uncommon requirement on most land sales,” said Stigliano in a statement. “Unfortunately, for this approval, the drama was ratcheted up several degrees.”

Charter schools have come under scrutiny, and the city pored over every detail of Franklin’s plan before approving it, according to a release.

Now that the deal has closed, Franklin Academy has broken ground on its upcoming 100,000 square-foot school, which will house up to 1,300 K-8 students when it opens in August. — Sean Stewart-Muniz