DOWNTOWN — GEMS World Academy, a personal faculty, is on the market in Lakeshore East.
The announcement of the sale of the varsity and its constructing, 350 E. South Water St., which Crain’s first reported Wednesday, comes two years after GEMS ended its highschool program to as an alternative deal with pre-Ok by means of eighth grade college students.
GEMS World Academy Chicago opened in 2014 as the primary U.S. faculty for the Dubai-based schooling supplier. It has an annual tuition of $28,000-$37,500, relying on grade degree.
In November 2022, GEMS leaders mentioned they’d be phasing out the highschool program. Following months of uncertainty, the varsity later introduced it had secured a long-term lease at its Lakeshore East campus by means of 2033, telling Block Membership the varsity was there to remain.
The varsity’s growth, nevertheless, was thrown in limbo. A nine-story, 154,000-square-foot constructing at 355 E. Wacker Dr. would have expanded the varsity’s skill to deal with highschool college students.
Final yr, Crain’s revealed that GEMS in the end surrendered the constructing to a consortium of greater than a dozen unpaid lienholders. The unfinished highschool constructing was then put up on the market by Energy Building.
Now, GEMS is promoting its authentic faculty operation and East South Water Road constructing as its traders shift focus to increasing within the Center East, the place the varsity was based, head of faculty Cindy Rigling instructed Block Membership.
The Chicago campus will shut if a purchaser isn’t discovered by the top of the varsity yr this summer season. However Rigling mentioned she’s hopeful a brand new investor will step in, citing the varsity’s numerous choices and accreditations, like its Worldwide Baccalaureate program.
“We’re actually pleased with our excellent school, and the regular educational successes of our college students, even by means of the pandemic,” Rigling mentioned. “We’re hoping that folks will acknowledge the standard of this system and wish it to maintain.”
Rigling mentioned the varsity has been clear in regards to the sale with dad and mom of enrolled college students since late final yr, and is encouraging them to have a backup plan in case a purchaser isn’t discovered. Simply over 200 college students are at present enrolled at GEMS, she mentioned.
The varsity’s constructing at 350 E. South Water St. has capability for greater than double that, based on an actual property flyer reported by Crain’s.
“The asset is the varsity, this system,” Rigling mentioned. “We predict we now have a novel place within the non-public faculty panorama right here in Chicago, I feel we serve a novel function … So I feel there’s a marketplace for what we’re doing.”
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