Acquisition: Lease or Purchase

For NPL, the acquisition process is an on-going activity. Once NPL's Board of Directors identifies a school that it wants to support, NPL scours all available sources to help identify potential locations, in many cases identifying both locations that are then for sale and locations that are for lease.

NPL then investigates the potential of those locations for use as a school, including considering whether those proposed locations are already served by good schools, whether the cost of preparing the facility for use as a can be serviced using the school's anticipated finances, and the potential of the school to handle any expected expansion of the school's enrollment down the road. If the school selects a location that is for lease, NPL makes an effort to facilitate the lease transaction between the landlord and the school and steps aside. For schools that prefer, and reasonably can, purchase facilities, NPL utilizes its experience with developing charter schools to acquire and renovate the property at the lowest possible cost. It is critical that buildings are purchased competitively in order to assure the lowest cost basis and therefore the lowest debt service for the property.