Medical tech career school expands into White Plains

A Miami-based operator of for-profit career schools will expand into Westchester by year's end, when it opens a campus of its Ultrasound Diagnostic Schools (UDS) in White Plains.

UDS, which trains students for jobs as diagnostic medical sonographers, anticipates conducting its first classes

Education Group Inc., Evan Goetz, could not say specifically when that would be.

He said the expansion plans are expected to proceed even with Whitman's plans to be acquired for by Career Education Corp. of Hoffman Estates, Ill. The $230 million deal is expected to close this month.

Whitman has agreed to lease 22,000 square feet at 333 Westchester, a four-building, 600,000-square-foot campus owned by Cohen Brothers Realty Corp. of New York City.

The school operator will occupy portions of the campus' west and south buildings.

"This transaction brings us significantly closer to the complete leasing out of the complex," said Stephen J. Riker, vice chairman of Colliers ABR, the leasing agent for 333 Westchester.

Riker said talks are in progress with several would-be tenant businesses seeking to lease a total 30,000 square feet at 333 Westchester. He would neither disclose the identifies of the tenant prospects nor confirm talk in real estate circles that Argent Mortgage Co. is negotiating for an additional 10,000 square feet at the campus.

Argent, a subsidiary of Ameriquest Mortgage Co. of Orange, Calif., holds option rights to lease 130,000 square feet, in addition to the 118,000 square feet it has already committed to, through a lease signed last February.

Riker and another Colliers ABR executive, managing director Michael Norris, represented Cohen Brothers in the long-term lease deal. PRG Realty Partners and Jaymar Corp. represented Whitman.

With the Whitman/UDS deal, 333 Westchester is more than 60 percent leased, after years of struggling to attract tenants. Last year Cohen and Colliers ABR reduced asking rents, which now stand at $26 per square foot, and completed a series of improvements to the campus. Amenities include a 15,000square-foot fitness center, a 200-seat conference center and 20,000-square-foot cafeteria.

UDS is one of 22 schools Whitman operates in New York and 12 other states. Whitman educates more than 9,000 students in schools that specialize in business, healthcare and information technology.

Publicly traded Whitman on May 30 credited rising enrollment and a tuition increase with the near-tripling of its net income during the year that ended March 31, to $7.5 million, on revenues that rose 19 percent, to $109.8 million. Total enrollment rose almost 11 percent during the year, to 9,214 students.