Behind the Secret Bidding War Over Lawrence Woodmere Academy

HALB, a local Chabad group, and reportedly a neighborhood mosque are quietly vying for the shuttered campus — and the fight over what’s left is just getting started.

WOODMERE – In the heart of the Five Towns, on Woodmere Blvd, sits a several-million-dollar monster of a property — once home to Lawrence Woodmere Academy. Now, its future is quite uncertain.

The school’s finances had been collapsing for years. Its 2023 tax filing already showed it $2.86 million underwater, on top of a $5.6 million mortgage it couldn’t outrun. By July 2025, the board pulled the plug, pausing operations for good.

The property is probably one of the most valuable spaces in the community, so contention over it is no surprise. Who’s vying for it — that is.

A source confirmed to 5TJT earlier this month that Chabad of the Five Towns is in advanced talks with local government to secure the property, with a $13 million promissory note supposedly already secured.

Meanwhile, HALB’s all-girls high school, SKA — which for years has been housed in an old estate in Hewlett, distant from Central Avenue and the main stretch of the Five Towns — has reportedly been putting in bids of its own, in the same range as Chabad’s.

Finally, rumors began circulating earlier this week that a neighborhood mosque was also in talks to buy the property, though that remains unconfirmed for now. 5TJT held a brief phone call with a mosque representative, though a fuller response is still pending. Based on that call, we believe the rumor has real validity, even without on-the-record confirmation yet. Unconfirmed reports from two separate sources suggest the group may genuinely be in the running.

While we monitor the ongoing contest over the property, we welcome any and all contenders into our community with warmth, and are excited to see any group contribute to the spiritual vibrancy of the Five Towns.

This is a developing story. 5TJT will continue to update as sources confirm further details.