Apex Buys Former UWS School Set to Become Homeless Shelter for $26M

By Isabelle Durso November 7, 2025 12:43 pm

160 W. 74th Street, Manhattan, NY. Kasra Sanandaji, a principal at Apex. PHOTOS: NYC.gov; Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

A former private school on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that’s set to become a homeless shelter has found a new owner.

Apex Investments, through the entity 74th St. Propco, has purchased the former Calhoun School at 160 West 74th Street from Bayrock Capital for $26.4 million, according to city records made public Thursday.

The Calhoun School, a co-educational private institution, moved its Lower School out of the five-story building between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues into its new home at 325 West 85th Street in July 2023, according to its website.

The property is now slated to become a 146-bed women’s homeless shelter operated by Midtown-based nonprofit Volunteers of America through a contract with the Department of Social Services (DSS), according to Crain’s New York Business, which first reported the news.

Kasra Sanandaji, principal at Apex, signed the new deal for the buyer, while Moshe Glassman, a partner at Bayrock, signed for the seller, which used the entity UWS Partners, records show.

It’s unclear who brokered the deal. Spokespeople for Apex, Bayrock, Volunteers of America and Cushman & Wakefield — which has worked on past deals at the building — did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bayrock purchased the Upper West Side property in July 2023 for $14 million, property records show, with plans to convert the school into residences. The DSS announced in December 2023 that the property would instead become a women’s shelter.

Noelle Withers, executive vice president and chief program officer at Volunteers of America, said at the time that her nonprofit was selected to operate the shelter because it has a “strong reputation for running high-quality programs and being responsive to community concerns.”

The shelter was originally slated to open by the fall of 2024, but that opening was delayed. A new opening date has not yet been announced, but an Apex representative submitted plans with the New York City Department of Buildings last week to convert and expand the existing property at 160 West 74th Street into a six-story housing development, Crain’s reported.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.