Ivy Ridge, home sold for $2.8m

CANTON — A Delaware corporation has purchased the property and buildings housing the Academy at Ivy Ridge and a home on the St. Lawrence River for nearly $2.8 million.

New York Minute LLC of La Verkin, Utah, sold the 238-acre property and a home with 200 feet of frontage on the river at 5428 Route 37, Morristown, to LondAmerica Real Estate for $2,794,804, the St. Lawrence County clerk's office said.

Attorney J. Ralph Atkin, representing LondAmerica, said Friday that the Academy at Ivy Ridge has been closed. He declined to reveal the owner of LondAmerica Real Estate or the intent for the property.

Delaware Department of State records show LondAmerica was incorporated March 3 in the state of Delaware.

Last month, Ivy Ridge officials said the school would close for several months starting March 14 to "restructure" its operations. Officials said all students and most of the employees would be removed temporarily from the boarding school until it is reopened in the fall.

The Ivy Ridge property is assessed at $1.9 million and the Route 37 home is assessed at $175,000. School officials didn't return calls for comment.

The former Mater Dei College campus in the town of Oswegatchie was sold to Robert Browning Lichfield Family Limited, Toquerville, Utah, in August 2001 for $1.23 million. The Academy at Ivy Ridge, a school for troubled youths, opened a few months later.

The behavioral modification school has been under scrutiny by the state for several years. Then-Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer determined the school was making fraudulent claims that it was accredited and could issue high school diplomas. As a result of that investigation, Ivy Ridge agreed to pay nearly $1.5 million in refunds and fines.