{"id":139096,"date":"2026-02-19T19:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T19:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/139096\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T19:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T19:40:07","slug":"highly-anticipated-nyc-preschool-finally-set-to-open-after-mysteriously-sitting-empty-for-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/139096\/","title":{"rendered":"Highly-anticipated NYC preschool finally set to open\u2014 after mysteriously sitting empty for months"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A brand-new city-run preschool that was scheduled to open years ago is finally set to welcome tots this year \u2014 after a<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/28\/us-news\/parents-outraged-as-doe-quietly-pulls-preschool-plans-from-posh-nyc-nabe-and-wont-say-why-unacceptable\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> Post investigation revealed the site has been sitting empty for months.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The former parking garage at 403 E. 65th Street, which is leased by the city from a private landlord and was initially scheduled to welcome Pre-K and 3K students in 2024, will open to more than 100 students in September, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The school will open in a former Upper East Side parking garage. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n<p>The building has been sitting empty for years. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n<p>The school will double capacity on the Upper East Side. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor too long, parents across the city have faced a shortage of 3K and Pre-K seats in their neighborhood,\u201d  Mamdani said at a news conference. \u201cThe lack of early childhood education centers left families with two bad choices: either claim a seat in a neighborhood far away, or pay out-of-pocket for childcare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mamdani even appeared to quote The Post\u2019s exclusive reporting on the phantom school building \u2014 and local parents\u2019 resulting frustration in the delayed opening \u2014 during his remarks:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/18\/us-news\/ny-politics-live-updates-feb-18\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politics<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile parents were forced to look elsewhere for childcare, they would walk past a solution to the very challenges that they faced, wondering why its doors remained closed,\u201d he said. \u201cAs one mother said at the time, \u2018It\u2019s like a slap in the face every time we walk by.&#8217;\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The site will serve as the first standalone site of its kind in the zip code, and is expected to double Pre-K capacity and quadruple 3-K capacity in the posh zip code.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A brand-new city-run preschool that was scheduled to open years ago is finally set to welcome tots this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4337,75,57,9,56,63,65,64,51259,466,58,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-139096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-department-of-education","9":"tag-manhattan","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-news","16":"tag-preschools","17":"tag-upper-east-side","18":"tag-us-news","19":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}