Lake Forest Academy

Lake Forest Academy

Lake Forest Academy was founded in 1857 by Sylvester Lind and has operated for over 165 years as a co-educational boarding and day school in Lake County, Illinois. The institution maintains a sizable real asset footprint alongside its educational mission, with holdings that include its main campus, faculty housing, a fine arts collection, and a Florida golf course. The endowment deploys capital across an unusually broad mandate for an independent school — buyout, venture at seed through late-stage, growth equity, fund of funds, and secondaries. Direct real estate exposure is a core pillar: the Academy is a partner in the Bronx Hub Development alongside Starwood Capital Group and holds an interest in the mixed-use asset at 2395 Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem. The institution's advisory relationships with Capstone LLC founder David Barrosse and J.P. Morgan's Charles Cooper provide structured policy and private-capital perspectives. The pool is estimated at roughly $62 million (Altss estimate). Beyond the main Lake Forest campus, the Academy controls properties in the Bronx, Harlem, and Gulf Breeze, Florida. Philanthropic and operational partners include The Brinson Foundation, which provides scholarship grant support, and the Zafirovski Family Foundation, where Life Trustee Robin Zafirovski links the institution to an education- and mentoring-focused grantmaking vehicle. What differentiates Lake Forest Academy from a typical independent school endowment is the direct operating-company and real estate joint-venture exposure typically reserved for family offices. The combination of on-balance-sheet real property in partnership with an institutional sponsor like Starwood, plus venture-stage commitments, creates a hybrid asset-owner structure where campus preservation is just one return stream among several.