Twenty-eight buildings across New York City were supposed to house preschool classrooms. Instead, they sit empty, or repurposed, while taxpayers foot a bill that has climbed to $99.3 million in rent and utility payments alone. Nearly five years after former Mayor Bill de Blasio left office, not one of the 28 facilities has opened for the 3-K seats it was built to provide, the New York Post reported.
The facilities were part of de Blasio's "3-K For All" expansion, a marquee initiative that earmarked $400 million to build or renovate buildings and promised nearly 3,800 new seats across the 28 sites. Those seats were scheduled to come online between August 2020 and September 2025. Most never materialized. The classrooms are finished. The kitchens are installed. The playgrounds are built. And the doors remain locked.
A former city Department of Education official, speaking on condition of anonymity, offered a blunt diagnosis:
"I don't think it's corruption. It's incompetence."
The de Blasio administration launched 47 "initiative projects" to expand early childhood education. The ambition was real. The execution was not. The former DOE official told the Post that the rush to secure sites did not account for whether the chosen buildings sat in neighborhoods with actual demand for preschool seats. Officials were "very disappointed" when they realized some locations made little sense.
One example stands out. A facility on Union Turnpike in eastern Queens, located in a heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, was completed in 2022 at an estimated cost of $10.8 million. Larry Mottola, who owns a hair salon nearby, said he was given a walkthrough when construction wrapped.
Mottola described what he saw:
"They had beautiful classrooms, a stainless steel kitchen [and] there's a beautiful playground around back. It's bothersome, [that] they would waste that kind of money for four years."
The city still pays roughly half a million dollars a year in rent on the Union Turnpike site. It sits roughly a quarter-mile from an existing 3-K center that has nearly 30 vacant slots. The former DOE official put it plainly: "They realized [afterward that] it wasn't a good location.... If they didn't think the need was there, why did they pick the site in the first place?"
That pattern, finished buildings burning through lease payments while children elsewhere can't find a seat, repeats across all five boroughs.
The numbers are specific and damning. At 129 Van Brunt Street in Brooklyn, near the Columbia Street waterfront, taxpayers have spent $5.8 million on construction since 2022. The city has spent nearly the same amount again on rent and energy costs, for a building with no students. The nearest active 3-K program had 79 applications for 12 seats last year.
In Manhattan, a city-leased site at 1972 Broadway was planned as a 225-seat 3-K center. It has cost more than $6.8 million in rent and energy, with a total estimated price tag of $21.98 million. The site recently opened to a handful of special-needs students, but the 3-K center remains a ghost. One existing Manhattan 3-K center nearby drew 166 applications for 15 seats last year.
At 1010 Third Avenue, also in Manhattan, the lease runs $255,000 every month. The total tab has hit $6 million. The building remains shuttered. The nearest opened program saw 218 students compete for 15 seats.
Mayor Mamdani now faces the fallout from two predecessors' choices, and his own record of broken promises across multiple policy areas gives parents little reason for confidence.
On Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, another "3-K For All" location sat completely vacant for years while the city paid $5 million in rent since 2021. In Rego Park, Queens, one vacant site sits within blocks of four existing 3-K centers. In College Point, Queens, and Ridgewood, Queens, unopened sites neighbor preschools that received more than 100 applications for a fraction of available seats.
On Staten Island, one intended 3-K building now houses a DOE "welcome center", not a preschool.
Jessica Setton, a Brooklyn mother, has been petitioning the city to open the Van Brunt Street center. Her Change.org petition has collected hundreds of signatures. She described the situation in terms any taxpayer would recognize:
"It feels like a real misstep that we're not even utilizing the space that's being paid for. De Blasio had good intention, terrible execution."
Setton pointed to a broader irony. New York City has a law requiring reduced class sizes. Schools need space. And the city owns finished buildings sitting dark.
"You have schools that need space, you have a city law that says we need to [reduce class sizes]... and yet we have empty buildings. As a taxpayer and as a parent, it drives me insane."
Zach Hetrick lives on the same block as the Van Brunt Street site. His daughter is enrolled in 3-K, but not nearby. He has to travel to get her there. He said opening the schools should have been a higher priority: "The people of the city see it as a priority.... Making the requisite spend to open the schools should have been more of a priority."
In neighborhoods like Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, one site drew 148 applications for roughly a dozen spots. In Brooklyn Heights, the popular Kinder Prep Montessori had as many as 110 applicants for 13 seats. Demand is not the problem, at least not in these neighborhoods. The problem is that finished buildings sit locked while families scramble.
De Blasio and Adams have traded blame for years. De Blasio told the Post that "during my administration, we never had a problem filling Pre-K and 3-K seats because we did lots of parent-friendly outreach." He added: "Sadly, the Adams administration ended those efforts and took a step backwards on early childhood education."
Adams fired back that he "inherited a system with thousands of empty early childhood seats" and focused on "stabilizing providers and increasing enrollment, rather than simply expanding capacity." Last summer, the Adams administration told parents it was not issuing procurements to open the Van Brunt Street facility or any others.
A DOE representative said in August that "based on current enrollment data and application trends, we do not see sufficient unmet demand in this area to support the opening of a new site at this time." That claim sits awkwardly next to waitlists more than 100 students deep at nearby programs.
The former DOE official said an internal probe into the vacant preschools was launched. A DOE representative declined to comment on the status of that report. The department said it is "continuously evaluating all vacant sites for the most responsible use based on site readiness and community need" and that "all plans will be shared publicly once timelines and approvals are confirmed."
The former official was less diplomatic: "Department of Education funds are getting wasted when there is great need in other communities."
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced last week that the city would open seven 3-K locations in the fall, including six of the long-vacant sites. Earlier this year, he announced the opening of one empty site on the Upper East Side. At 63-57 Fresh Pond Road in Ridgewood, the city plans to move in this summer; the building currently houses a Success Academy Charter Schools location.
Setton expressed cautious hope: "Now is a great opportunity for Mamdani... [to] correct the wrongs of the past." Hetrick was more guarded, adding, "if it comes on time."
That skepticism is earned. Mamdani has already retreated from a major property tax hike and pivoted to agency belt-tightening as the city faces a record budget gap. His administration has scaled back or abandoned multiple high-profile promises since taking office.
The question is whether seven openings, after years of inaction, represent a genuine turning point or another round of announcements that dissolve on contact with reality. Mamdani has abandoned his signature free-bus pledge and settled for a scaled-back pilot. His record of following through is thin.
Meanwhile, the city continues to write checks. The leases run. The utilities stay on. And the classrooms stay dark.
Setton put it as simply as anyone could: "I pay my taxes for schools, so here's a school. Now let's open it."
That line shouldn't require a petition. It shouldn't require an investigation. It shouldn't require five years. But in a city that spent $99.3 million to keep empty buildings warm, even common sense has to get in line behind the budget priorities of leaders who never seem to pay the price for getting it wrong.
When the government builds a school, fills it with furniture, and then locks the door for half a decade, the problem isn't funding. It's accountability, and in New York City, that remains the one thing in shortest supply.
