International School Renews and Expands to 22K SF at 815 Second Avenue
By Isabelle Durso September 25, 2024 12:51 pm
reprints
The Lyceum Kennedy International School has signed a renewal to keep its Manhattan campus at 815 Second Avenue for another 15 years and grow by 9,242 square feet.
The school — which provides bilingual education in both French and Japanese to students in preschool through 12th grade — will stay at its existing space on the second floor and expand onto the entire third floor, giving it a total of 21,950 square feet, according to tenant broker Cushman & Wakefield (CWK).
Lyceum Kennedy has occupied 12,708 square feet of space at the building, which is owned by The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church, since 2013. The school’s lower campus is next door at 225 East 43rd Street.
“Lyceum Kennedy’s search criteria included direct access to the above-grade space from the street and close proximity to both Lyceum’s lower school at 225 East 43rd Street and the United Nations,” C&W’s David Hoffman, who brokered the deal for the tenant along with Sam Hoffman, said in a statement. “We actually uncovered a surprising number of options but, ultimately, 815 Second Avenue offered the best solution.”
A C&W spokesperson declined to provide the asking rent. When the institution renewed its lease at the property in April 2018, asking rent was $55 per square foot, as Commercial Observer previously reported.
Lyceum Kennedy, founded in 1964 and named in honor of President John F. Kennedy, doubled its footprint at 815 Second Avenue to “accommodate its growing upper school student population, many of whom are international students,” according to C&W.
It added a Japanese language school in the late 1990s after a Japanese professor and linguist acquired the school in 1986, according to its website. The upper school’s location at the corner of Second Avenue and East 43rd Street puts it one block west of the United Nations’ headquarters building on First Avenue.
Parish Property Management’s Bill Savarese and Jamie DeJong represented the landlord in the deal. Spokespeople for Lyceum Kennedy, the church and Parish Property did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.
