Washington Latin School Acquires Historic Kirov Academy Building for $23M
By Keith Loria September 27, 2022 2:30 pm
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The Universal Ballet Foundation, which shut down its Washington, D.C., nonprofit academy earlier this year due to financial hardship, has sold its longtime home, the Kirov Academy, for $22.5 million.
The Washington Latin School was the buyer and will use the 49,952-square-foot facility and site as its new campus, according to the school.
CBRE (CBRE) represented the seller in the deal.
“The Universal Ballet Foundation owned the property for 33 years and decided to close the school,” Reilly Hudson, CBRE’s senior associate, told Commercial Observer. “We had immediate and strong interest with over 30 requests for our confidential offering memorandum. We received multiple offers, all education users.”
Located at 4301 Harewood Road NE, the historic site is a former monastery building, built in 1914, that sits on 2.15 acres in D.C.’s Brookland neighborhood. The three-story property was renovated in 1986 to its current design as a school for ballet.
The Universal Ballet Foundation was founded in 1990 by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Last fall, a former bookkeeper was sentenced for stealing more than $1.5 million over the course of nine months in 2018, and the pandemic only added to the organization’s financial problems over the last few years.
The building consists of four ballet studios, dorm rooms, studio space, an industrial kitchen, a student lounge, administrative offices and a concert hall.
Joining Hudson on the seller’s side of the transaction was CBRE’s Michael Zacharia, while Cresa represented the buyer.
Keith Loria can be reached at Kloria@commercialobserver.com.
