The CEO of Goddard Systems Inc. has begun an organic push of the early childhood education facility, Goddard School, throughout the tristate region.
Joe Schumacher said the company just signed its first lease in Manhattan following the development of a metro model with locations in Lincoln Park in Chicago and Buckhead in Atlanta.
In Westchester, a 10,000-square-foot Yorktown Heights facility is set to open at the Triangle Shopping Center at the end of February.
Teacher and owner April Fatato said that “each school is individually owned and what makes us different is I can create whatever I want with it in terms of events or themes.”
Schumacher said the schools are based on a “dual management system.”
“April will be the franchisee and handle operations and have relationships with the parents, but she”™ll also have a state licensed educational director responsible for day-to- day implementation of programs in the class,” he said.
Also slated for a 2011 opening is a Goddard School at 1 Jackson Ave. in Hastings-on-Hudson, which will require a conversion of an existing, one-story vacant office building.
Schumacher said the franchisee is far along on all of his approvals and expects to obtain a certificate of occupancy in July.
“With any luck, he”™ll be open by September,” he said. “It”™s a different kind of building. This one”™s a retrofit, so for us, it really makes the process go quicker. Generally, it”™s permitted and you might need a variance ”¦ but a standalone takes at least six months to build.”
Schumacher said the average Goddard School ranges in size from 8,000 to 8,300 square feet with 10,000 square feet of outdoor playground space.
Construction costs are “dependent on whether a franchisee is buying a property or leasing, but I would say about $1 million to $1.2 million for a typical site.”
An area like Westchester could feasibly hold about 10 to 12 schools, he said, but that “Connecticut has been difficult for us because of the expense and New York is the same.”
Goddard operates more than 360 franchises schools in 37 states and was recently named the No. 1 child-care franchise in the nation by Entrepreneur magazine for the ninth consecutive year.
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