St. Marcus School has purchased a vacant lot north of its original campus that could eventually be used for future growth.
The parcel at 307 E. Center St., Milwaukee, was bought out receivership for $19,900, according to state records. Henry Tyson, St. Marcus superintendent, said the land will be used for parking for the foreseeable future.
“We are just growing like crazy so clearly this campus will need to grow again,” Tyson said. “Whenever real estate like this becomes available, you buy it.”
St. Marcus, 2215 N. Palmer St., is a high-performing voucher school that offers its students what it describes as “cradle to college” programming in addition to health resources, information on disease prevention and religious programming for its students and their families.
The school purchased a second campus in 2014 from the Council for the Spanish Speaking, Inc. at 2669 N. Richards Street.
In December 2015, St. Marcus began a 40,000-square-foot addition at the site that will enable it to serve more than 1,200 students. Enrollment is currently 912.
St. Marcus was hoping to complete the $9 million project this month. However, Tyson said the school is $1 million short.
The shell of the three-story building and the middle two floors are complete, Tyson said. He is hoping the school is able to raise the remainder of the money to complete the project by the end of the year.
“We’re hoping in the next month or two we will figure out what happens next,” Tyson said. “Right now we are completely out of space and we’ve got to finish what we started.”
