Manhattan Country School Puts Building on Market in Face of Foreclosure
The six-story schoolhouse at 150 W. 85th St. has an asking price of $39.8 million.
| 11 Nov 2024 | 12:41
The exterior of Manhattan Country School at 150 W. 85th St. (
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Manhattan Country School is selling its nearly 40,000 square-foot, six-story home at 150 W. 85th St.
The listing comes a month after Flushing Bank filed a foreclosure suit against the school in New York County Supreme Court, alleging that it had defaulted on nearly $3 million of loans. Crain’s New York Business first reported the news.
Denham Wolf Real Estate Services, is representing the school in the sale of the building that contains 20 classrooms, as well as a gym, library and kitchen.
“The building provides the opportunity for a sale and leaseback or for a new owner to acquire a move-in ready facility,” Eve Dilworth Rosen, head of marketing for Denham Wolf said in an email to the West Side Spirit on Nov. 11. Its listed asking price is $39.8 million—$11.8 million more than what the school paid in 2015, according to property records.
Manhattan Country School was founded in 1966 by Gus and Marty Trowbridge, who were inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of racial equity and social justice, according to Gus Trowbridge’s obituary in the New York Times.
Progressive values remain central to the school’s mission: “Our students engage in social activism and community-focused thinking, emphasizing interconnectivity and inclusivity. They are empowered to become catalysts for social change, working towards a more just world,” reads its website’s homepage.
The school’s tuition is based on a sliding scale of household income, with an upper annual tuition limit of $57,000. It runs from prekindergarten through eighth grade, and 256 students are currently enrolled, according to its website.
The school also operates a farm in Roxbury, New York, which students visit regularly to learn about agriculture, nature, fiber arts and cooking.
Prior to its 85th Street schoolhouse, Manhattan Country School occupied the Ogden Codman House, a historic limestone mansion at 7 E. 96th St. It sold the building for $20 million in 2016, according to property records.