Renaissance Charter School Buys Queens Building for $85M
By Mark Hallum January 6, 2026 4:41 pm
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The Renaissance Charter Schools can now claim ownership of the Elmhurst, Queens, building it operates out of after purchasing the school facility for $85 million, according to the organization.
Renaissance bought the five-story, 67,286-square-foot building at 45-20 83rd Street from Barone Management — the building’s developer — through the sale of bonds issued by Baird Public Finance Group, Renaissance Executive Director Stacey Gauthier told Commercial Observer.
The charter school, which has been at the build-to-suit property for about four years, raised roughly $95 million from bond investors to complete the deal, Gauthier said. Renaissance will continue to lease the land beneath the property from Barone for a term of 55 years.
“It’s definitely, in the long run, more cost effective for us [to own the building],” Gauthier said. “We went through, what nobody warned us about, a big process of buying it through bonds, but we’ve been going through this process for several months, and then right before our winter break it was all finalized. So we now own the building.”
Barone Management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Renaissance has another school location at 35-59 81st Street in Jackson Heights, Queens, which it leases from the New York City Department of Education. Before opening its expansion site in Elmhurst, the school was holding classes in Maspeth, Queens, at Martin Luther School, which has experienced a shrinking headcount.
While the Elmhurst facility is not at full capacity, Renaissance plans to grow its student body with new grade levels and fill space not used at this time, according to Gauthier.
In December 2020, Barone secured a $21.5 million construction loan from Metropolitan Bank for 45-20 83rd Street, which was negotiated by Adam Hakim and James Murad, both of whom then worked for Meridian Capital Group. Hakim and Murad have since moved to Ripco Real Estate.
Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.
