Aspira of Florida sold its third South Florida charter school for $5.1 million.
Investors Mario and Ramon Castellanos’ company, 216 Corner LLC, bought the Aspira Leadership & College Preparatory Academy at 13330 Southwest 288th Street in Homestead.
The 26,596-square-foot charter school sits on a 3.52-acre property. It sold for $192 per square foot. The buyer plans to lease the property to a new charter school operator, according to a release.
Colliers International South Florida’s Achikam Yogev represented the seller.
Earlier this year, Colliers also brokered the sales of Aspira’s two other schools: Yes Properties bought the school at 13300 Memorial Highway in North Miami for $6.8 million, and David and Leila Centner paid $12.8 million for the school at 1911 Northeast Miami Court in Miami. Aspira sold the three schools for $25 million.
This last sale marks nearly a year since Aspira of Florida’s board of directors decided to voluntarily close the group’s three charter schools, effective June 30.
Property records show the Homestead site last sold in 2005 for $2.1 million. The campus was built between 1988 and 2010.
The Castellanos also own the site at 12400 Hainlin Mill Drive in South Miami-Dade, where they planned to build an AcadeMir charter school.
Investor interest in charter schools in Florida remains strong. The supply of available locations has narrowed, and financing has become more readily available. At the same time, state lawmakers are backing charter schools as an alternative to public schools, and Governor Ron DeSantis is pushing the schools to take advantage of Opportunity Zone tax breaks by building schools in low-income areas.