A six-story charter high school has topped out on Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst, and when doors open next Tuesday, it will end three years of Forte Preparatory Academy's high schoolers being split across temporary locations in Glendale. The new building at 78-02 Queens Boulevard, on the corner of Hillyer Street, replaces what was once a surface-level parking lot and gives the charter network's 9th and 10th graders a permanent home for the first time.
According to New York YIMBY, the roughly 59,000-square-foot facility was designed by SBJ Group and features a bright yellow, green and gray insulated metal panel rainscreen façade, narrow ground-level windows and a wide, uniform window grid running from the second through fourth floors. A canopy bearing the school's name marks the entrance at the building's northwest corner, and a bulkhead sits against the southern lot line wall. Inside, the school includes a regulation high-school basketball court and indoor gymnasium, a media center, a cafeteria, teacher's lounges, dedicated arts spaces, an outdoor terrace and a large rooftop recreation area.
The project traces back to an April 2025 construction loan, when the Low Income Investment Fund, along with community development partners Reinvestment Fund and Enterprise Community Loan Fund, closed $32 million in financing for the project. The fund's materials indicate the building was designed to hold up to 560 high school students, a figure that dwarfs the 353 students currently enrolled in grades 5 through 8 at Forte Prep's nearby middle school campus on Reeder Street, less than half a mile away in Elmhurst. APEX Development Group LLC, the Queens-based firm that developed the school in partnership with Knickpoint Ventures, was founded in 2019 by Andrew Esposito and focuses on community-centered real estate projects across Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, per LIIF's account.
Ending Three Years of Split Campuses
Forte Prep's high school program launched in 2023, but until now its 9th-through-12th grade students have attended classes across two temporary locations in Glendale, Queens, according to Forte Preparatory Academy. The Elmhurst building finally brings those students together in one place as the 2026-2027 school year gets underway, with student orientations scheduled to run from September 1 through September 3 ahead of the school's opening on Tuesday, September 8.
Forte Prep was founded in 2017 by Executive Director Graham Browne, a Yale School of Management graduate, and operates as a public charter school authorized by the State University of New York Board of Trustees, according to St. Paul's School. The school has been designated a New York State Recognition School, a title reserved for top-performing public schools statewide, while its own recruitment materials note that 77% of high school graduates in its surrounding neighborhood have historically been unprepared for college-level academics.
A Response to Overcrowding in District 24
The new campus lands in Queens Community School District 24, which covers Elmhurst, Corona and Jackson Heights and has long been flagged by industry and educational analysts as one of New York City's most overcrowded public school districts, as reported by Bisnow. Forte Prep specifically targets student recruitment in Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst and Corona, neighborhoods where local families speak more than 160 languages, according to the school's own organizational materials.
The financial mechanics behind the building also reflect a broader pattern in how charter schools expand in the city. Under New York State's 2014 Facilities Access Law, eligible charter schools operating in private facilities receive public rental assistance, and Forte Prep has confirmed that this funding fully covers its lease payments at the 78-02 Queens Boulevard site, per the same Bisnow report.
Gym and Rooftop Field Open to the Neighborhood
Beyond serving its own students, Forte Preparatory Academy has said it plans to make its full-sized maple-floored gymnasium and rooftop athletic field available for local neighborhood classes and community events, opening up recreation space in a stretch of Queens where such space is tightly constrained. The building sits within walking distance of transit, with the R and M trains serving the Grand Avenue–Newton Street station east of the school at Queens Boulevard and Broadway, and the M60 bus stopping at Queens Boulevard and Ireland Street just west of campus.
