Manhattan Country School Sells UES Home Ahead of West Side Relocation
By Liam La Guerre April 26, 2016 12:15 pm
reprints
Investment company M. Safra & Co. has purchased the long-time home of the Manhattan Country School at 7 East 96th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues for $20 million.
Manhattan Country School, which is a private school with students from pre-k through eighth grade, has been based in the limestone mansion since 1966 and began listing the property with CBRE and The Corcoran Group in 2014 for $23 million, as The Wall Street Journal previously reported. The sale of the five-story townhouse closed on April 7, according to city records published today. Douglas Elliman‘s Jennine Gourin and Sabrina Saltiel represented both the buyer and the seller in the transaction.
The school had outgrown its size and purchased a bigger building for $28 million last year at 150 West 85th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues, as the Commercial Observer previously reported. CBRE’s Ned Midgley, Timothy Sheehan, Joan Meixner and Dan Kaplan represented the school in that deal.
It plans to double enrollment to 400 students at its new quarters, which log in at 36,000 square feet and will be able to house a gym and science lab. The school is expected to move into its new home this year before classes for the 2016-2017 school year begins. Annual tuition for the school ranges from $42,000 to $44,000, according to its website.
The new location “will have a dedicated space for a gym. So we can actually have gym classes on site,” the Manhattan Country School spokeswoman told CO. “We have been in [7 East 96th Street] for 50 years and it’s hard to say goodbye but we are excited about the opportunity in front of us, [such as] the opportunity to double our enrollment.”
It was not immediately clear what plans M. Safra & Co. has for the property. A receptionist that answered the phone at the office said that executives were not interested in commenting.
