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New York City has shelled out nearly $100 million in taxpayer dollars to rent more than two dozen buildings that were meant to house preschools — but have yet to open half a decade later, The Post has learned.
The city is still footing the rent and utility bills for the 28 facilities — a $99.3 million-and-counting boondoggle blamed on the “terrible execution” of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ambitious universal preschool expansion.
“I don’t think it’s corruption. It’s incompetence,” a former city Department of Education official told The Post.
The de Blasio-era scramble to construct 47 “initiative projects” for the then-mayor’s “3-K For All” pet program — giving free full-day care for 3-year-olds — resulted in the slew of “phantom” preschools that remain devoid of students nearly five years after he left office.
The ex-DOE official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the rush job was done without considering whether the chosen buildings were even in neighborhoods with a demand for the free seats.
The source said officials were “very disappointed” in the outcome, “given there’s such a significant need for pre-K seats.”
As The Post previously reported, the de Blasio administration earmarked $400 million to build or renovate existing buildings — for a total of nearly 3,800 3-K seats across 28 sites — that were meant to open between August 2020 and September 2025.
A handful of the intended 3-K buildings have since been repurposed as temporary homes for charter schools, preschool learners and even a DOE “welcome center” on Staten Island, but the majority remain totally empty — and none are offering 3-K seats.
The scramble to get the program up and running resulted in bizarre outcomes, such as an unopened 3-K center on Union Turnpike in Queens — estimated to cost $10.8 million — placed in a section of the city that already had trouble filling existing early childhood education seats, the former schools official said.
“They realized [afterward that] it wasn’t a good location. … If they didn’t think the need was there, why did they pick the site in the first place?” the source said — adding the city is still shelling out a half-million dollars in annual rent to a private landlord over it.
The eastern Queens site is in the middle of a heavily Jewish Orthodox neighborhood, the source noted — rendering the location a difficult space for a public preschool either way, as devout parents would likely opt for a religious setting.
De Blasio blamed his successor, Mayor Eric Adams, for the pre-K kerfuffle, arguing that “during my administration, we never had a problem filling Pre-K and 3-K seats because we did lots of parent-friendly outreach.
“Sadly, the Adams administration ended those efforts and took a step backwards on early childhood education,” de Blasio told The Post, adding he believes that demand will increase “substantially” under Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Adams, however, argued he “inherited a system with thousands of empty early childhood seats,” and chose to prioritize “stabilizing providers and increasing enrollment, rather than simply expanding capacity.”
Mamdani announced last week that the city would finally open seven 3K locations in the fall — including six of the long-vacant sites — as his administration moves forward with its own universal child care expansion.
Larry Mottola, owner of a hair salon near the Union Turnpike facility, said he was offered a walkthrough of the site when it was completed in 2022 — and bemoaned the fact that it kept racking up bills but never opened.
“They had beautiful classrooms, a stainless steel kitchen [and] there’s a beautiful playground around back,” he said.
“It’s bothersome, [that] they would waste that kind of money for four years.”
Some of the other buildings chosen to house 3-K programs were located near already existing centers.
For instance, the one on Union Turnpike is just roughly a quarter-mile away from a 3-K center that has nearly 30 vacant slots. Another vacant site is located within blocks of four existing 3-K centers in Rego Park, Queens.
An internal probe into the vacant preschools was launched after the realization, the former schools official said.
A DOE rep declined to comment to The Post on the status of the report.
“Department of Education funds are getting wasted when there is great need in other communities,” the source said.
The situation has enraged parents in areas with skyrocketing demand for the free, full-day education programs for 3-year-olds — including some neighborhoods where 3-K waitlists are more than 100 students deep.
“It feels like a real misstep that we’re not even utilizing the space that’s being paid for,” fumed Jessica Setton.
The Brooklyn mom has been petitioning the city to open its planned 3-K center on Van Brunt Street, along the Columbia Street waterfront, after The Post first exposed its years-long vacancy last month.
“De Blasio had good intention, terrible execution,” she said. “Now is a great opportunity for Mamdani … [to] correct the wrongs of the past.”
Mamdani — who has dubbed de Blasio his favorite living Big Apple mayor — appears to be making moves to clean up the mess, with his announcement last week and one earlier this year about the long-awaited opening of one empty site on the Upper East Side, which followed a Post investigation into the empty $15 million schoolhouse.
Parents across the city have been urging the mayor to open more preschools, citing soaring competition that prompts some families to shell out tens of thousands of dollars on private care.
“The people of the city see it as a priority. …. Making the requisite spend to open the schools should have been more of a priority,” said parent Zach Hetrick, who lives on the same block as the 129 Van Brunt St. site where his daughter would have been eligible.
Instead of enrolling in the nearby 3-K program, Hetrick must trek with his tot over a mile away on foot, or a 15-minute bus ride “if it comes on time.”
Taxpayers have spent $5.8 million just on construction for the vacant 129 Van Brunt St. site since 2022, according to a Post review of financial records.
The city has spent nearly the same amount on rent and energy costs on the empty site alone — but without any indication of when the school will open in the future.
Meanwhile, the nearest active 3-K program near Vant Brunt Street saw 79 applications vying for just 12 seats last year, while other popular sites — such as Kinder Prep Montessori in Brooklyn Heights — had as many as 110 applications fighting for 13 seats.
Despite the obvious demand in the neighborhood, a DOE rep bizarrely said in August that, “based on current enrollment data and application trends, we do not see sufficient unmet demand in this area to support the opening of a new site at this time.”
The Adams admin told parents inquiring about the Van Brunt Street last summer that it was not issuing procurements to open that facility or any others.
Setton, whose Change.org petition to open the Van Brunt Street preschool has yielded hundreds of signatures, railed, “You have schools that need space, you have a city law that says we need to reduce class sizes … and yet we have empty buildings.
“As a taxpayer and as a parent, it drives me insane,” she said.
A Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, site had 148 applications for roughly a dozen spots, while a nearby “3-K For All” location on Atlantic Avenue sat completely vacant for years – despite the city shelling out $5 million in rent since 2021.
Similarly, in Manhattan, one existing 3-K center saw a whopping 166 tots apply for just 15 seats last year, while an empty city-leased site at 1972 Broadway cost taxpayers over $6.8 million in rent and energy costs.
That site — estimated to cost a total $21.98 million — recently opened to a handful of special needs students, but the planned 225-seat 3-K center in the building remains vacant.
A 3-K center at 1010 Third Ave. in Manhattan cost the city another $6 million in leases to date — a staggering $255,000 each month — but remains shuttered, while the nearest opened program saw 218 students compete for 15 seats.
Other unopened 3-K sites in Queens — like those at 18-31 131st St. in College Point; 98-05 63 Drive in Rego Park and 63-57 Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood, which is currently a Success Academy Charter Schools location before the city is set to move in this summer — similarly have more than a hundred applications for nearby preschools competing for just a fraction of seats.
A DOE rep told The Post the department is “continuously evaluating all vacant sites for the most responsible use based on site readiness and community need” and that “all plans will be shared publicly once timelines and approvals are confirmed.”
Setton said, “This is really a story of parents who see a need, and we want the city to correct the ills of the past.
“I pay my taxes for schools, so here’s a school. Now let’s open it.”
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