The Canyon-Agassi fund acquired the former warehouse and converted it into a two-story school. The property includes a main building of 30,000 square feet and a separate 3,400-square-foot space with a large multipurpose room.
"We are really excited," said Marc Mannella, chief executive officer of KIPP Philadelphia Charter Schools. "This is a really good deal for us."
Students have been attending class at the main site since the fall, but the smaller building just opened.
Mannella said the school, which has 150 pupils in kindergarten and first grade, plans to grow to 500 pupils from kindergarten through fourth grade by 2014-15.
Agassi founded the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas in 2001 to provide a college-prep education for students in a low-income part of that city. He found that many charter schools have trouble finding and paying for suitable buildings.
His Andre Agassi Ventures L.L.C. partnered with Canyon Capital Realty Advisors, a private equity real estate company based in Los Angeles, to establish the facilities fund.
Over the next four to five years, the venture aims to help high-achieving urban charters create seats for 40,000 to 50,000 students.
Major institutional investors backing the fund include Citi, Intel Capital, and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Mo.
The fund learned about KIPP Philadelphia's building need from the national KIPP Foundation in San Francisco. KIPP Philadelphia Charter Schools are part of a national network of charters affiliated with the nonprofit Knowledge Is Power Program, which focuses on college preparation.
