Centners buy assemblage for teacher housing, as private school expands in Miami 

Private school owners David and Leila Centner bought an assemblage near their Edgewater campus where they plan to build teacher housing, The Real Deal has learned. 

The controversial owners of Centner Academy paid $6.1 million for the nearly half-acre contiguous properties at 125 to 145 Northeast 20th Street in Miami, according to their spokesperson. The Centners could develop more than 200 apartments on the site for their teachers and staff, as demand for affordable workforce housing remains high. 

The assemblage is about a block and a half north of the middle school campus. 

Property records show the estate of Ileana Jaime Rodriguez sold the parcels, which are a combination of vacant land, a single-family home and a small commercial building. 

The Centners will finalize their plans for the site and plan to break ground as soon as they secure their entitlements, their spokesperson said. The school owns about 50 teacher housing units, from Edgewater to North Beach, including single-family homes and duplexes near the preschool on the border of the Miami Design District. 

The school is working on building a mixed-use athletic complex, theater, dormitory, teacher housing and garage next to the middle school at 1911 Northeast Miami Court. The Centners are still finalizing the concept and working on construction documents. Records show the Centners’ Edgewater 19 LLC owns the land, which is currently used as sports courts. 

David and Leila Centner made headlines three years ago when the school threatened to fire teachers if they received the Covid-19 vaccine before the end of the school year. The school also asked students who received the vaccine to quarantine for 30 days, but then reversed that decision. 

The school has been in expansion mode and now has capacity for 1,000 students across locations, the spokesperson said. In addition to the new projects planned, Centner Academy recently completed renovating the elementary school campus at 3465 Northwest Second Avenue

Earlier this year, companies tied to the Centners paid close to $5 million for an assemblage at 3442 and 2390 Northwest Second Avenue, near the new elementary school. It’s in the Wynwood Norte neighborhood. 

Not all deals have been purchases. In October, the couple sold a nearly 1-acre development site on the southwest corner of Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast 34th Street in Edgewater to Amit Kort and his investment partners for $16.5 million. The Centners paid $11.5 million for the properties, which are in an Opportunity Zone, in 2018.

Private schools across South Florida have been dealing with a boost in demand from wealthy families relocating to the region, resulting in long wait lists and affecting some residential deals from Palm Beach to Pinecrest, brokers say.