School for low-income children readies for a home of its own

Martha Woodall, Philadelphia Inquirer

9.18.2017 — In the NewsLending

Philadelphia LISC is pleased to be part of the financing team for the Community Partnership School's new home, which will transform a blighted and vacant building in Strawberry Mansion neighborhood into a state-of-the-art school. LISC provided CPS with a $2.7 million leveraged loan in partnership with Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) for this New Market Tax Credit transaction.

CPS celebrated the groundbreaking for the nearly $13 million renovation in early September. CPS is a private school dedicated to providing a high-quality, affordable education to children from low-wealth, low-income backgrounds in North Central Philadelphia. The new building will enable CPS to more than double its size, growing from 93 to 220 students, and allow CPS to serve as a community hub for neighborhood residents.

Check out the article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about the project:

Inquirer Excerpt:

For more than a decade, an unusual, private elementary school for low-income children in North Philadelphia has operated out of shared space at Project HOME’s Honickman Learning Center.

On Friday afternoon, the Community Partnership School (CPS) took its first step toward occupying a home of its own with a ground-breaking at 3033 Glenwood Ave. in Strawberry Mansion.

“We’re fortunate that for 11-plus years we’ve been able to partner with Project HOME in one of their locations,” Eric C. Jones, head of the Community Partnership School, said before the ceremony. “But the idea of CPS having its own facility has been part of the plan from the beginning.”

The school will be housed in a long-vacant former industrial building. Renovations for the $12.8 million project are expected to take about a year. Jones said CPS anticipates it will be able to move to its new quarters during the 2018-19 academic year.

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Read the full article at Philly.com