Cognita Schools pays $50M to York Prep for building in Lincoln Square

The London-based Cognita Schools through the entity Cognita Us Propco LLC paid $50 million to York Prep through the entity York Prep Realty LLC for the school building (W3) at 40 West 68th Street in Lincoln Square, Manhattan. Cognita, according to its website, often partners with schools around the world which maintain their own name and identity.
The deal closed on February 6, 2023 and was recorded on February 8, 2023. The property has 24,030 square feet of built space and 22,650 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 46,697 square feet according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $2,080 and the price per buildable square foot is $1,070 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The signatory for York Prep was Ronald Stewart. The signatory for Cognita Schools was Andreas Tolpeit. In September, PincusCo reported on the contract related to this sale, but the memorandum of contract did not disclose the price at the time.

The buyer is a network of 90 schools in Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East with an international focus. It does not yet have a school in the United States, according to its website. The contract was signed July 1, 2022, and expires in 16 months.

The property

The 40 West 68th Street parcel has frontage of 77 feet and is 100 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,757 square feet. The zoning is R8 which allows for up to 6.02 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property is in the Upper West Side / Central Park West Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $9.3 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $3,750 in ECB penalties and $3,750 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

For the tax lot building, it received its initial certificate of occupancy on October 26, 2012. There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Lincoln Square, the majority, or 61 percent of the 19 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 24 percent of the space. In sales, Lincoln Square has the 8th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.9 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Lincoln Square has 1.4 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 20th highest in Manhattan. It had 1.4 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 7 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the nine commercial properties representing 71,065 square feet of the 210,177 square feet. The two identified owners are Peter Lee and Caiola family.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 68 percent of the 147,307 square feet of built space are elevator buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 16 percent of the space.

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