A new charter school is coming to the South Bronx under a 45-year lease deal that will let it avoid paying both conversion costs and property taxes.
Neighborhood Charter School, based in Harlem, will open its new Bronx location at 411 Wales Avenue in Mott Haven, according to Crain’s. The site is home to a warehouse that will undergo a more than $20 million redevelopment to convert it into a school.
The nonprofit Civic Builders will pay to develop the space and lease it to Neighborhood Charter School for rents in the $30s per square foot. Civic Builders controls the property through a leasehold condominium, meaning it owns the building as a condo unit. This allows it to avoid paying property taxes, thanks to its nonprofit status.
Pinnacle Realty of New York’s Decio Baio, Fred Stein and Ariel Castellanos, along with Stephen Powers and Lindsay Ornstein of Transwestern, brokered the deal.
The city’s Board of Standards and Appeals approved a zoning change in late April allowing the site to become a school, as it was previously zoned just for manufacturing. Work started soon after and should be done in about two years.
The school will span 58,000 square feet and have classrooms for 630 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. [Crain’s] – Eddie Small