Halifax, not Saint John, will be home to the first French international school in Atlantic Canada.

LIFPA Don Bosco said it finalized a lease for the project within the Bayers Road Centre on Thursday.

The private not-for-profit school, initially slated to launch for the 2025 school year, will now be open this September.

The news comes just over a week after LIFPA Don Bosco abandoned a similar project in Saint John, which was supposed to be the first French international school in the region.

Plans were in the works to use two of the three levels of the former New Brunswick Museum exhibition centre in Market Square uptown for the school, set to open in September.

But in a social media post on Jan. 30, officials said the total amount of work needed exceeds estimates by 50 per cent.

“The administrators of the LIFPA must therefore abandon this project and would like to thank all the local and French partners for their support in this ambitious and meaningful project,” said the post.

“The LIFPA, which still wishes to open a French International school in the Atlantic Provinces, is currently studying all possibilities.”

Lycée International Français des Provinces Atlantiques (LIFPA) will serve international and local students from kindergarten to Grade 12 and will be part of a large network of schools around the world.

It is part of the Don Bosco network of schools, which operates in more than 130 countries around the world. There are several locations throughout Canada, including Toronto, Montreal and Calgary.