Global educational group Cognita Schools signs contract to buy York Prep location in Lincoln Square

The London-based, global educational group Cognita Schools through the entity Cognita US Propco LLC signed a contract as buyer with seller York Prep through the entity York Prep Realty LLC to acquire the specialty 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 memorandum of contract was signed on September 1, 2022 and was recorded on September 2, 2022. 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 signatory for York Prep was Ronald Stewart. The signatory for Cognita Schools was Jayne Pinchbeck. 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 sale price was not disclosed.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, Pincusco has no record that the buyer Cognita Schools had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller York Prep had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

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 $5,030 in ECB penalties and $5,030 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

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 60 percent of the 19.4 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 6th 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 had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 715,523 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 two of the nine commercial properties representing 71,065 square feet of the 210,177 square feet. The two identified owners are Caiola family and Peter Lee.
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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