Lawrence to sell the Number Five School in Cedarhurst

Lawrence to sell the Number Five School in Cedarhurst

For the second time in two years, the Lawrence School District is looking to sell the Number Five School, at 305 Cedarhurst Ave. in Cedarhurst, which has been leased for the past seven years by the Shulamith School for Girls.

Our high school and elementary school are experiencing tremendous growth. The Cedarhurst building is our home.”

Malka Fischman Executive director, Shulamith School

For the second time in two years, the Lawrence School District is looking to sell the Number Five School, at 305 Cedarhurst Ave. in Cedarhurst, which has been leased for the past seven years by the Shulamith School for Girls.

“We are about to embark on a $30 million FEMA project [at] the high school with long-term improvements and other system up-grades in conjunction with Superstorm Sandy,” Lawrence Board of Education President Murray Forman said of the reasoning behind the potential sale of another school building, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Forman said that the work planned for Lawrence High School includes construction of a seawall at the back of the campus to protect the building from Motts Creek and Jamaica Bay, which ravaged it during Sandy in 2012 and forced the district to close the building in January 2013 for nearly four months. In addition, the high school will have a new heating and air conditioning system installed, its plumbing will be overhauled and the parking lot will be revamped to mitigate flooding.

“We hope to have a shovel in the ground within the next 18 months,” Forman said, noting that the funding from FEMA is in the form of a grant. The district will spend the money, and then be reimbursed. In 2019, Lawrence was awarded $14.387 million by FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, and roughly $16 million more from the agency’s Restoration Program.

Since 2015, the Shulamith School has leased the Number Five School, a 97,000-square-foot building built in 1929 that occupies just over 2.5 acres. Lease payments began at $500,000 per year, and have grown to $600,000 for this school year.

Lawrence has also saved roughly $800,000 in annual operating expenses by leaving Shulamith responsible for all building maintenance. Shulamith has an early childhood school, a lower division, a middle school and a high school that graduated its third senior class in June.

On Nov. 10, at a scheduled Town of Hempstead Zoning Board hearing, the Shulamith School is expected to request special exceptions for the proposed religious end educational use of a building it now owns, a former fitness center at 158 Franklin Place in Woodmere, 1.3 miles from the Cedarhurst site.

The school’s executive director, Malka Fischman, said the former New York Sports Club was purchased in order for Shulamith to expand its high school. “We had over 400 people at our open house on Sunday,” she said. “Our high school and elementary school are experiencing tremendous growth. The Cedarhurst building is our home.” Fischman said that Shulamith plans to buy the Number Five School as well.

The Long Island City-based Greiner-Maltz Real Estate is marketing the property for the Lawrence district. The company also marketed the Number Six School eight years ago. A public referendum on selling the school to Simone Development for a health care facility failed in 2013. A year later, after another referendum was approved, the district sold the Woodmere building to the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach for $8.5 million.

John Maltz said that the company has marketed the Cedarhurst site nationally and locally to brokers, developers and investors. There is a website — https://www.305cedarhurstave.com/ — where interested parties can receive the offering information and submit a purchase bid.

“The website is soup to nuts, and you can click for the due diligence and bid form — we made it as easy possible,” Maltz said, adding that the property is zoned for low-density development.

In 1980, the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway purchased the Number Three School, on Central Avenue in Cedarhurst, for $1.1 million, and it is now HAFTR High School. Developer David Neuberg bought the Number One School, which was on Central Avenue in Lawrence, in 2007 for $29.1 million. The property was converted into an upscale condominium complex, which generated an additional $2 million for the district based on the number of apartments constructed.

Have an opinion on the possible sale of the Number Five School? Send a letter to jbessen@liherald.com.