Charter school developer pays $2.5 million for land in St. Cloud

South Florida-based MG3 Developer Group paid $2.5 million this week for BridgePrep Academy’s second charter school site in Osceola County.

The transaction involved two parcels, totaling 14.15 acres, at the northeast corner of Old Canoe Creek and Nolte roads in St.Cloud. The city’s Development Review Committee approved the Site Development Plan on Dec. 12 for the 2-story, K-8 charter school. The 61,296-square-foot building will have 50 classrooms, and it’s designed to accommodate 1,000 students and 100 employees.

The plan also shows a future soccer/football field and two basketball courts. But the entire site won’t be dedicated to the charter school.

The property surrounds an existing 7-Eleven fuel station/convenience store, and the site plan reserves about 3 acres of commercial zoned property fronting on Old Canoe Creek Road for future outparcels.

BridgePrep opened its first Osceola charter school at 4815 Koa Street in the Poinciana area of Kissimmee in 2018. Utah-based American Charter Development built the school and this year completed its phase 2 expansion.

MG3 has completed three other charter schools in Central Florida – all in Orange County. The development team for the St. Cloud school is primarily based in the Tampa area: McNeal Engineering, Brad Design & Engineering and Cornerstone Design Services. Dark Moss is the landscape architect.

St. Cloud has seen a proliferation of new charter school development in recent years, including Canoe Creek Academy (2016), American Classical Charter Academy (2019), Creative Inspiration Journey School of St. Cloud (2019), Mater Academy at St. Cloud (2019). Osceola County school officials say charter schools are vital to serving the county’s growing population, since one of every four school-age children in the county attends a charter school.

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