Sale of Georgetown Day School’s MacArthur Boulevard campus, expected to be completed at the end of this month, has been delayed.

Closing of the deal, in the works for the past 2.5 years, has been put off “a couple” or “a few” months, GDS Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Houser said today. He said the buyer requested the delay.

Citing a confidentiality agreement, Houser has identified the buyer only as another private school. He declined to give a reason for the delay or put an outside limit on extension of the contract. The deal has been in the works since at least December 2017.

The uncertain turn, and the prospect of the building being empty, prompted questions at a community meeting about how the building and fields might be used.

Houser said the site is obviously valuable, especially as schools contemplate how they might accommodate the “social distancing” called for to help combat the spread of the Covid-19 virus. But he said how it might be used and by whom are unclear. He said the site would be patrolled by GDS security. The building is about 90,000 square feet and has accommodated 575 students.

In a move that caught many by surprise, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s proposed 2021 budget includes plans for building a $56 million elementary school next to the old Hardy School building, about a block from the GDS campus. DCPS officials have said the school would be 70,000 to 80,000 square feet and hold up to 550 students.

Houser said DCPS has expressed interest in the GDS site in the past. He would not say whether DCPS has done so recently, but he said, “People talk to people.”

GDS has been packing up the lower school campus and expects to move its belongings to its expanded Tenleytown campus by the end of this month. That transition was put off for a week to 10 days to allow for easier final inspections of the new building, Houser said.