Renaissance Charter School paid a combined $38.2 million for two of its Broward K-8 campus buildings.
In Plantation, Renaissance picked up a 46,000-square-foot building completed in 1969 on 5.8-acres at 6701 West Sunrise Boulevard for $16.8 million, according to records and Vizzda. In Tamarac, the non-profit charter school company paid $21.5 million for a 85,233-square-foot building built in 1982 on a 9.2-acre site at 8399 North University Drive.
Fort Lauderdale-based Renaissance financed its purchase with $44 million in educational facilities revenue bonds, with Regions Bank as trustee.
As part of the deal, Renaissance entered into 45-year ground leases with the seller, Charter Schools USA, one of the largest charter school companies in the nation that still owns the land underneath the schools, a Vizzda report states.
Last year, Charter Schools USA bought the two properties for a combined $47.2 million, records and Vizzda show.
Renaissance operates 38 charter schools across Florida, including this pair in Plantation and Tamarac that the non-profit company recently acquired, according to its website.
Last month, another Broward charter school building traded hands. Kansas City, Missouri-based UMB Bank, as trustee for bondholders, obtained title to the former home of Championship Academy of Distinction High School through a $14.5 million in lieu of foreclosure sale.
UMB Bank, as bondholders’ trustee, also has a pending foreclosure lawsuit against an entity that owns the Championship Academy of Distinction K-8 campus in Lauderhill.
Private and charter school operators are expanding in South Florida due to the migration of wealthy parents from California and the Northeast. In March, Miami-based Centner Academy paid $4.7 million for two adjacent parcels in the city’s Wynwood Norte neighborhood to build an elementary school that recently opened. The private school’s founders, Miami Beach power couple David and Leila Centner, are embroiled in a public corruption probe that led to multiple felony charges against suspended Miami city commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla.
In Hialeah, Prestige Companies and Hialeah Park Racing & Casino are partnering to build Flamingo Village, a proposed 343-unit apartment complex and a Mater Academy charter school.