Baton Rouge University Preparatory Elementary, a charter school that has been operating in north Baton Rouge since 2013, has acquired a 6.4-acre parcel in Howell Place and will relocate the school to a new facility it plans to build on the north Baton Rouge site.
UP Elementary Founder and Executive Director Meghan Turner says the new location, which is only about a mile from the school’s current site at 5300 Monarch Ave., will enable the charter school to expand and serve more students. This fall, UP Elementary will have some 350 students in grades K-3. Eventually, the facility will enroll as many as 600 students in grades K-5.
While the new, 40,000-square-foot school building is under construction, UP Elementary will operate from 25,000 square feet of temporary building space on Howell Place. Construction on the new building is expected to take around two years and should be completed in time for the start of the 2019 academic year.
UP Elementary acquired the 6.4-acre parcel from Howell Place developer Richard Preis in a deal that closed Thursday. Turner confirms the sale price was around $1.5 million but declines to disclose the exact amount. Property transfer documents are expected to be filed later today with the East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court’s office. Daily Report will update the story with the exact price when the documents are filed.
Turner also would not say how much UP Elementary plans to spend on construction of its new building, but she says the Howell Place location is ideal for the school, which has been growing by one grade per year since its opening.
“We’re really excited to stay in an area that is close to where we were previously located but that is part of the redevelopment of north Baton Rouge,” Turner says. “We’re excited there is a lot of growth and new housing going on there and we’re happy to be part of it.”
Preis says UP Elementary is a welcome addition to the mixed use development.
“We’re proud to be home of such a distinguished school as UP Elementary,” he says. “Education is a very meaningful addition to the health care, housing, hospitality, retail and finance services Howell Place provides for north Baton Rouge.”
—Stephanie Riegel
