Blue Man Group’s Seaport school building hits market for $28M

Performance troupe’s school, which leased property after 2017 sale, will permanently close this year

241 Water Street (Avison Young, Getty)
241 Water Street (Avison Young, Getty)

The home of an expensive private school operated by founders of the silent performance troupe Blue Man Group has not-so-quietly hit the market in Lower Manhattan.

The six-story, 32,000-square-foot commercial building at 241 Water Street in the South Street Seaport District is asking $28 million, according to a listing with Avison Young.

The property sits on a 7,400-square-foot lot between Peck Slip and Beekman Street that can be further developed into an up to 45,000-square-foot community facility with 19,000 square feet of unused air rights, according to the listing.

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The building has been occupied since 2011 by the Blue School, a Pre-K through 8th grade school founded in 2006 by members of the Blue Man Group, which is set to close at the end of the academic year. The independent school, where annual tuition costs up to $55,000, said it has experienced a significant decline in enrollment which, combined with other factors, has jeopardized its “long-term viability.”

The Blue Man Group sold the building in 2017 to Swiss-based wealth manager Clermont Consultants for $17.6 million, but held a long-term lease that ran until 2060.

The property was previously the headquarters of the Seamen’s Church Institute, which moved to Newark, New Jersey, in 2010.

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