Little Red school will grow a little bit more

Volume 19 Issue 54 | May 25 -31, 2007

Little Red School House Elisabeth Erwin High School has acquired a 4,000-square-foot townhouse at 42 Charlton St., next to the existing high school, for $4.1 million, according to Danielle Culmone, of Quinn & Co., the broker assisting the transaction.

The acquisition, directly from the seller, is intended to accommodate the high school’s enormous growth, estimated at 75 percent over the past five years. Arthur Bence and Anne Murphy, who are retiring and moving to Florida, sold their home to the school.

“We’re very excited to be able to buy a property adjacent to our existing high school,” said Philip Kassen, director of the school. The owners had sent a child to Little Red through the eighth grade and remembered the school when they decided to sell the property. “It wouldn’t have happened without their help,” Kassen said.

The property is in the Charlton King Vandam Historic District, so the existing townhouse will be retained and converted to school use. Skidmore Owings & Merrill will design the conversion.

“We don’t expect to begin construction until 2008; we still have to talk to the community,” Kassen said.

Francis Greenberger, chairperson of Time Equities, and Cary Tamarkin, chairperson of Tamarkin & Co., members of the L.R.E.I. board of directors, assisted in the transaction.

— Albert Amateau