Charter school network filed plans in Mott Haven

KIPP NYC files plans for 150K sf building

75 Canal Street West in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx (Google Maps, iStock)
75 Canal Street West in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx (Google Maps, iStock)

One school network is charting its course straight through one of the Bronx’s busiest neighborhoods.

Charter network KIPP NYC filed plans for a school at 75 Canal Street West in Mott Haven, Crain’s reported. The plans call for a 150,000-square-foot building, standing seven stories and 70 feet tall.

Perkins Eastman is listed as the architect of record for the project, which is anticipated to cost $117 million.

KIPP NYC has set a goal of opening a high school at the site for the 2024-25 school year, according to Crain’s. It would be the network’s 19th school in the city and 10th in the Bronx; only one other network school in the neighborhood is a high school.

Former taxi mogul Victor Weingarten sold the development parcel at the site for $21.7 million last summer. Crain’s reported the site houses a one-story transportation and utility building.

The parcel KIPP NYC purchased spans 34,000 square feet, but has a development potential of 168,2000 square feet, meaning the charter network is nearly maximizing its possibilities with the planned building.

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KIPP NYC is one of several charter school networks expanding its presence in the city and serving as a lifeline for commercial landlords.

Elsewhere in the Bronx, the nonprofit secured a $121 million loan last year from Zions Bancorporation to construct a facility on two parcels at 1504 and 1518-1530 Macombs Road in Mount Eden. There are plans to reportedly relocate KIPP Elements Primary School and KIPP All Middle School.

KIPP NYC also secured $102 million in financing from the same lender for 2720 Jerome Avenue in Fordham, where the nonprofit is looking to open a K-8 school.

The school planned for the Bronx could go a long way towards supporting a potential influx of residents in Mott Haven. Brookfield Properties last month secured $438 million to build a 928,000-square-foot, mixed-use building at 101 Lincoln Avenue. The building will provide 921 units to the neighborhood.

Overall, the neighborhood is set to receive about 20 residential projects with more than 5,000 apartments in the forthcoming years, the New York Times reported in October.

[Crain’s] — Holden Walter-Warner