Bankruptcy trustee values shuttered UWS school building at $39M, prepares for sale

The bankruptcy trustee for the shuttered Upper West Side Manhattan Country School values the organization’s main asset, the school building at 150 West 85th Street, at $39 million, and is preparing the building for sale, a new chapter 7 bankruptcy petition filed yesterday says. The entity West 85th Street Owner LLC, by trustee Albert Togut, filed the petition in the Southern District of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

According to the new bankruptcy filing, “The MCS [Manhattan Country School] Trustee, as the administrator of MCS’s estate and the ultimate controlling party of the Debtor, has commenced the above-captioned case to facilitate his sale of the Schoolhouse pursuant to section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code under the supervision of the Bankruptcy Court.”

This is the second bankruptcy filing related to the Manhattan Country School, the first was filed in May 2025 in response to Flushing Bank’s 2024 pre-foreclosure filing.

New case 25-11922-dsj LINK

Initial case 25-11009-dsj LINK

Manhattan Country School bought the building from the New School for $28 million on January 23, 2015, borrowing at the time $31 million from Ladder Capital. That loan was paid off in 2020. Meanwhile, between 2016 and 2019, the school borrowed approximately $25 million in bonds and debt that ultimately were acquired by Flushing Bank, and as of 2022 the total principal debt was approximately $24 million.

In October 2024, Flushing Bank filed a pre-foreclosure action, 850377/2024, against the school.

In May 2025, the school operation entity filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, which was converted to a chapter 7. Then yesterday, the trustee filed the chapter 7 bankruptcy for the entity that owns the property.

The property

The specialty building in Upper West Side has 38,838 square feet of built space according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 75 feet and is 102 feet deep with a total lot size of 6,575 square feet. The zoning is R8B which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $11 million.

Prior sales and revenue

This property was sold for $28 million on January 23, 2015.

Development

Over the past five years, there has been no NYC Department of Buildings new building, demolition, or alteration permit application valued at more than $20,000 filed for this parcel.

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on February 3, 2017.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

The property was involved in one lawsuit and one bankruptcy over the past two years. The suit was a $24 million commercial foreclosure concerning a loan filed on October 7, 2024, by Flushing Bank against Manhattan Country School and Michele Sola. The bankruptcy was filed on May 16, 2025, by Manhattan Country School citing assets of $38 million.

The neighborhood

In Upper West Side, The majority, or 59 percent of the 52.9 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space. In sales, Upper West Side has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $892.7 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 11th highest in Manhattan. For development, Upper West Side has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 20th highest in Manhattan. It had 2.1 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 4 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of three of the six commercial properties representing 275,003 square feet of the 362,639 square feet. The two identified owners are Nyc Department Of Education and Shore Assets. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 156 West 85 Street, PincusCo identified two commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. One of those two items was a sale which Shinwa Real Estate Co., Ltd bought the 11,880-square-foot, 20-unit rental (C5) on 159 West 85th Street for $8.8 million from Brand Family Realty on April 10, 2025. One of those two items was a loan which Shinwa Real Estate Co., Ltd borrowed $8.8 million from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation secured by the 7,120-square-foot, 20-unit rental (C5) on 159 West 85th Street and one other property on April 10, 2025.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.