A posh private girls school that has been trying to expand for years is about to get into another battle with its Upper East Side neighbors after purchasing three tenements it wants to replace with an annex, The Post has learned.
It’s the second recent expansion attempt by the exclusive Brearley School, whose alumni include Caroline Kennedy and actress Kyra Sedgwick.
In March, it gave up an attempt to buy an apartment building on East End Avenue occupied by a large number of elderly, rent-regulated tenants when the deal “became too complicated,” a source said.
A lawyer for residents of the newly threatened buildings, at 70, 72 and 74 East End Ave., vowed his clients would not leave without a fight.
It could not be learned how much Brearley paid for the five-story buildings. They had been sold for $42 million in 2005 to a developer who planned to demolish them, but defaulted on his loan before the wrecking ball was deployed.
The rent-stabilized buildings have a total of 24 apartments, 15 of which are occupied. There are vacant stores on the ground floors.
“We’re going to fight this,” said David Rozenholc, the tenants’ lawyer.
“The tenants are shocked and surprised that after abandoning the plan to evict the [apartment building residents], they’re now planning to evict tenants of neighboring buildings,”
He said his clients are “in even worse financial situations than the people in the apartment building.”
Tenant Elizabeth Taylor, a 57-year-old graphic designer, said, “I lived in New York over half a century. If I’m forced out of this building, there is no way I could afford to live here. It makes me angry that I would hear this from a reporter,” rather then the school.
“I’m horrified,” Taylor added.
But another resident, a restaurateur who asked not to be identified, said he’d be happy to go way with a big chunk of change.
“If they pay well, how upset can we be?” he asked.
He said he wants enough to finance a two- or three-bedroom apartment for his family in the area.
The school, which serves 692 students, issued a statement promising to “work cooperatively with the tenants.”