The Manhattan College of New York may be one step closer to pulling itself out of a financial fog with the pending sale of its Financial District campus.
MCNY intends to sell its 100,000-square-foot 40 Rector Street campus to the City University of New York for $40 million, Bloomberg reported. The seller will use proceeds from the transaction to redeem a portion of its outstanding bonds and pay deferred debt service.
The sale would break down to $400 per square foot.
CUNY would use the property as an interim location for the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing as construction continues on a consolidated campus. A spokesperson for the system cautioned that negotiations on the purchase are ongoing. The transaction would also require approval from Metropolitan College’s bondholders and accreditor, among others.
The sale would be a victory for the college’s bondholders, as the institution holds roughly $60 million in outstanding debt. Municipal bonds for the school were secured partially by a mortgage on the condominium units at the campus address.
MCNY tapped Cushman & Wakefield in the fall to either sell part or the whole building at 40 Rector Street. The listing was part of a forbearance agreement with investors.
The college owns three floors and part of the ground floor at 40 Rector, in addition to its Bronx campus, according to an August report by Fitch Ratings. The Bronx location is at 463 East 149th Street in the South Bronx.
Metropolitan College’s Rector Street campus contains 16 classrooms, 59 offices, a large library, two computer labs, a student lounge and four conference rooms, according to Cushman. It purchased the space in 2014.
The school had 480 students during the 2023-24 academic year, according to the state’s Education Department.
It previously turned to selling off its real estate to pay off creditors in the wake of the pandemic. In 2023, it sought to sell two floors of an office building at 60 West Street to reduce its debt.
Read more
Metropolitan College moves to sell part of FiDi campus
Struggling school seeks to sell Lower Manhattan campus
Metropolitan College eyes Rector Street spot
