NORTH ANDOVER — Three years after opening, Little Professionals day-care center on Route 114, near the Middleton line, closed permanently Wednesday night, putting 30 people out of work and leaving families scrambling to find day-care options for more than 100 children.
Another 20 employees and 100 more children were displaced from the company's two other locations in Chelmsford and Woburn.
The company, owned by husband-and-wife team Jim and Connie Richards, of 7 Laconia Circle, North Andover, was ordered closed by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge after 18 months of negotiations with creditors failed, Jim Richards said yesterday.
"As traumatic as it was for staff and families, and we felt terrible about it, for our family it's also a personal tragedy. It's not just a corporation shutting down, but a family business as well," Richards said.
"We were trying to work out a plan with the court," Richards said. "But not everyone was going along with it. I truly expected that not to happen on Wednesday. We were told if it (the court-ordered closure) did happen, we'd be given days or a week to tell the staff and parents. They said yesterday morning that I had yesterday to do it."
Several parents spoke with The Eagle-Tribune yesterday and recounted how they were notified Wednesday afternoon.
"I got a message from one of the coordinators at the day-care center," said Arian Tremblay, a North Andover resident whose 3-year-old has attended the school since it opened in September 2005. "She left me a message that she needed to talk to me right away. I called her back and she said, 'We're closing tonight. You need to pick up your son and all your stuff by 6 p.m. tonight."
Richards, 39, a certified public accountant, said he will go back into accounting while his wife, 37, an early childhood education professional, will go into day-care administration.
Ironically, the chain of three day-care centers was featured in an article by the Boston Business Journal in March 2008 as one of the fastest growing companies in the area. Even though the company was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, no mention of that was made in the article.
The Richardses started the business when they were both in their early 20s, opening their first center in Chelmsford in 1994. They later opened the Woburn facility. Both locations are leased and have been closed, Richards said.
In 2002, they bought 1.5 acres at the intersection of Route 114 and Sharpners Pond Road, not far from their home on Laconia Circle.
"There was a delay in building the center," Richards said. "I was the developer, and we had setbacks with the town and setbacks with the builder. It took an extra year to finish the building. It was the first time I ever developed a piece of property."
"By the time we got around to getting enrollment in there, we found ourselves behind," he said. They declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2007 in the hopes of reorganizing and figuring out a way to pay off their obligations.
The couple financed the North Andover facility with $2.5 million from Salem Five and New England Certified Development Corp., which provides Small Business Administration loans. Richards said the company also owed back taxes to the IRS.
He said the fate of the 12,500-square-foot building is uncertain, that it will be auctioned and could become another day-care center or be converted to another use. The first floor, which encompasses 10,000 square feet, is taken up with the day-care center, while the upper floor, about 2,500 square feet, is office space.
Parents who are owed money may have to wait until the bankruptcy proceedings are finalized.
Jeanine Sanchez of North Andover, who also had a 3-year-old enrolled there, said she lost a week's worth of tuition, but knows of some families who had prepaid a month for two children, at a cost of about $2,000.
More immediate, she said, is finding an another place for her son.
Several local day-care providers were at the facility Wednesday night handing out pamphlets, while many parents have been calling the regional office of Early Education and Care looking for referrals.