The Dept. of Education is spending $118 million to rent the former Sports Museum of America space at 26 Broadway for 30 years.
The city plans to build 650 high school seats on the first and second floors of the building, opening in 2011. The D.O.E. has not decided which existing high school program will move into the space.
Downtown Express first reported the city’s lease last week, but the D.O.E. only just disclosed the cost of renting the 106,000 square feet of space. The lease, signed last month, starts at $3.4 million a year and rises to $4.5 million by the end of the term, said Jack Zarin-Rosenfeld, D.O.E. spokesperson. Over the 30 years, the lease averages out to $37 per square foot.
The D.O.E. is already leasing another 180,000 square feet on the fourth through seventh floors of 26 Broadway for the Greenwich Village Middle School and the Urban Assembly School of Business for Young Women. The 30-year lease for those schools cost $250 million, or about $46 per square foot.
Some parents concerned about local school overcrowding hope the city will use the new 26 Broadway space for a middle school instead. However, the D.O.E. still plans to use the space to replace high school seats recently lost at 220 W. 58th St. when the city’s lease there expired.
— Julie Shapiro
