Unicorn Contracting Corp. has struck a deal to buy the former Soundview Preparatory School in Yorktown Heights for $2.85 million.
Soundview, a private school that closed in January after 30 years in operation, disclosed the deal in a document filed Aug. 19 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains.
“As soon as the closure was decided, the board began investigating the most efficient way to wind down the affairs of the school,” chairwoman Kelly Fairweather states in an affidavit. “Focused on finding a path forward that would provide the greatest recovery to ”¦ creditors, the board set out to monetize the debtor”™s most valuable asset, the property.”
Soundview”™s 13-acre campus is on Underhill Avenue near Saw Mill River Road and the Yorktown Heights business district.
The small, private co-ed school, grades 6 to 12, featured a low student-faculty ratio and a noncompetitive environment that were meant to encourage rigorous academic standards, according to its website, instill ethical values and foster self-confidence.
Enrollment had declined in recent years, and by January, with only 47 students, Soundview could not afford to keep the doors open. The school closed but faculty continued to work with 14 seniors, and in May, according to Fairweather, all graduated.
Unicorn”™s president, Paul F. Guillaro, expressed interest in buying the campus. The Cold Spring real estate investment and development firm has built commercial and residential projects in the region, and according to Fairweather it is well known to village officials.
In petitioning for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the school is hoping to quicken the transaction.
The school had asked the state attorney general”™s office, which is investigating the abrupt closing of the nonprofit school, for approval to sell the property. That would have bypassed a more costly, time-consuming process of getting a formal court order
But the attorney general”™s office advised the school that it could not approve the sale, she states in her affidavit, because Soundview is insolvent.
Thus, Fairweather stated, Soundview “elected to proceed with the liquidation of its assets and orderly wind down of its affairs through a Chapter 11 process.”
She said selling the property to Unicorn is in the best interests of creditors.
The campus was appraised at $3 million, according to a court document, but the school will save from $150,000 to $180,000 by not having to pay a real estate broker fee of 5 to 6 percent.
Soundview declared $2.9 million in assets and $2.84 million in liabilities. It owes nearly $2.3 million to Bank of America for the mortgage and credit card debt, as well as wages and retirement benefits to former faculty and staff.
A bankruptcy court hearing on the school”™s request to sell the campus is scheduled for Sept. 21.
Soundview is represented by Eastchester attorney Erica Aisner.
