Melissa Bailey File Photo
The MLK School.
Achievement First charter school network has bought the former Martin Luther King School for $1.5 million, sealing a hard-fought deal with the city and clearing the way for demolition to begin this summer.
Aldermen approved the deal in December after much wrangling over a community benefits deal. The city sold the building at 580 Dixwell Ave. on May 14 to Elm City College Prep. Inc, the legal entity that runs one of Achievement First (AF)‘s middle schools.
Fletcher Thompson Architects
A rendering of the new Amistad High.
The charter network plans to spend $35 million razing the abandoned MLK school and building a new home for its Amistad High School. The state will pay 69 percent of the construction costs, according to Lisa Desfosses, AF’s senior director of facilities.
Desfosses said the sale makes way for AF to begin demolition and abatement in June. The new building should be ready for students to return from winter break in January 2015, she said.