This week the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City (The J) embarks on the public portion of a fundraising campaign to build a Family Recreation Complex expected to open in late 2020. The 27,000 square-foot expansion will be located on the west side of the Jewish Community Campus between The White Theatre wing and the Fitness and Sports facility in what is now green space.
In an exclusive announcement to The Chronicle, The J’s President and CEO Jim Sluyter announced that The J plans to raise $10 million for the expansion. It will include a new entrance to Fitness and Sports, an additional gymnasium, an indoor turf field, an additional art room, expanded group exercise and child care options and more parking. J leaders hope construction will start near the end of 2019 and is estimated to last nine to 12 months. J leaders hope the new addition will open by late 2020.
The expansion
This is second major expansion to the Campus building since it opened in 1988. The White Theatre wing opened in 2005, which currently houses the Lewis and Shirley White Theatre, the Heritage Center, the Jewish Community Foundation, offices and communal rooms. The Child Development Center added classrooms and expanded its playground in the mid-to-late 1990s. Other changes, including an additional CDC expansion reconfiguring existing Campus space and creating a space for the JFS Food Pantry, have occurred over the years as well improvements and expansion of the recreational fields on the Campus grounds.
“I truly believe that our major donors view the Campus as the jewel of the community and believe that the current location is ideal for another 30 years or more,” said Scott Slabotsky, who is chairing the fundraising campaign to pay for the expansion.
All the new additions and enhancements will enhance and increase current programming at The J and will benefit other tenants of the Campus as well, including Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy (HBHA). Currently both HBHA and The J are forced to lease off-site facilities for girls and boys basketball. Doubling the number of basketball courts will allow the HBHA and J basketball teams to practice and train “at home.” The multipurpose gymnasium will be able to accommodate basketball, futsal, pickleball and volleyball. It will also provide a space for other community-wide programs and gatherings when the Campus Social Hall is booked.
Diane Azorsky, capital campaign consultant and vice-chair for leadership development of The J’s board of directors, pointed out that the babysitting area is being renovated and the Youth Fitness Zone will be moved next to babysitting “so it’s easier for families as they are dropping off and picking up their children. Besides that, we’re going to have an extra group exercise room, there will be other flex rooms and a coaches’ room.”
One of the big changes is moving the entrance to the fitness and sports area. In addition to being closer to parking, it will be built with security enhancements in mind.
“My goal when the entrance is redesigned is that we will replicate downstairs what we have at the main entrance with a security desk and cameras,” reported The J’s President and CEO Jim Sluyter.
The new addition will be right next to the Heritage Center, which is advantageous in a number of ways. One is simply ease of construction.
“Three of the walls for the new addition already exist,” Sluyter pointed out. “The structure, the foundation, is there because when the theatre addition was built, it was built with a potential phase two project down the road in mind.”
The additional art studio will be placed next to the Heritage Center, and that is by design, Azorsky said, because “the art program at the Heritage center goes gangbusters and we have waiting lists to get on the waiting list.”
“We’re going to build a second art studio, so we’ll have one art studio for painting and one art studio for ceramics,” she said. “Not only will that increase the number of Heritage Center participants who will be able to take classes, we’ll also be able to open those art rooms and add classes for other adults and for children whether it’s for after school programs or for art camp.”
Parking will also be increased.
“We’re still trying to figure out how much exactly, but we’re looking at adding anywhere from 70 to 200 additional spaces. That will be a bonus for members,” Sluyter said, adding both the main entrance to the Campus and the entrance to Fitness and Sports will remain open during construction.
“We hope to minimize disruption to J members,” Sluyter said. “Ultimately it will be more convenient for members because the entrance to Fitness and Sports will be closer to the parking lot.
Two local firms are handling the design and construction of the addition. The architect is Davidson Architecture + Engineering (DA+E) and the contractor is Overland Park-based MONARCH.
The capital campaign
Assisting Slabotsky with the capital campaign is Honorary Chair Howard T Jacobson. They are working closely with Azorsky; Cindy Bodker, The J’s director of development; and Sluyter.
The $10 million goal will cover the actual cost of construction and all the accoutrements that go inside — fixtures, furniture and equipment — which is estimated at $8 million. The other $2 million is for an endowment of which the income will help cover the cost of ongoing maintenance and operations.
“We used that same model when we built the theatre. We’ll run a balanced budget,” Azorsky explained.
Fundraising has been going on behind the scenes for quite some time, with the focus being on major donors in the community and J leadership. To date, $5.7 million has been raised, which includes a $1.8 million contribution from St. Louis philanthropist Michael Staenberg, who recently also donated $90,000 to refresh the Fitness and Sports facility.
“I am thrilled with the receptiveness that we have received from some of our major donors,” Slabotsky said. “We are very fortunate to kick off the public campaign having already received over 60 percent of our fundraising goal from a few dozen families.”
As the public portion of the capital campaign begins, Jacobson said he’s already impressed and energized by the active participation of donors, staff and the community.
“As honorary chair, I’m fortunate to continue to be involved with an organization — The J — that has been part of my family for generations. With this campaign, we can all help ensure our Jewish Community Center will be here to serve families for many generations to come,” Jacobson said.
Besides Staenberg’s outright gift, when The J raises an additional $3.6 million, he will donate another $1.2 million.
Sluyter believes it’s important to highlight that Staenberg’s donation is coming from outside Kansas City.
“One of the things that we’ve been trying to drive home with some of our donors is how often does one of our major institutions here in Kansas City go on a fundraising campaign where over 30 percent of the money raised is coming from outside of our local community?” Sluyter asked. “This is an important distinction to make because of ongoing concerns that so many campaigns are pulling resources out of this community. That’s a significant gift that’s coming from outside the local Jewish community.”
Azorsky explained The J will now begin reaching out to longstanding members and those who are very active at The J.
“Our general membership is encouraged to join this campaign,” she said.
Pledges may be paid over a five-year period. J leadership expects the entire $10 million to be accounted for before construction begins.
Why now?
The facility expansion is necessary for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that most of The J’s programs are at or near capacity, according to Sluyter.
“Membership is up 47 percent since we did the $2.7 million renovation of the Fitness and Sports facility 11 years ago in 2007-2008,” Sluyter said. “Our baseball program has gone from 87 children to 1,900, our basketball program has had 400 percent growth and our Encore! dance program has increased more than 250 percent. These represent just a few examples of how our programs have grown.”
On top of that is the increasing popularity of The J’s camp programs. Bodker pointed out that the camps have been filling to capacity for the past couple of years and due to licensing and current space restrictions, The J has not been able to add campers to the program.
“With this additional space we will be allowed to do that,” Bodker said.
New programs, such as pickleball, volleyball and futsal will also be possible due to the extra gymnasium and new indoor turf area.
The expansion and new programs are geared to families because 75 percent of The J’s membership is families. Last year The J eclipsed the 3,000-member-units mark for the first time ever. That compares to October 2007, before the last renovation to Fitness and Sports occurred, when The J’s membership stood at 2,096.
“Today we have 3,041 membership units representing over 10,000 individuals,” Sluyter said.
That figure does not include all the non-members who take part in J programs. The theater alone has about 13,000 patrons per year and only 35 percent of those who see shows at the White Theatre are members.
“Our baseball and softball programs have about 1,900 children enrolled, and about 70 percent of those are non-members,” Sluyter added.
The planning process
The J began considering an expansion in 2016.
“We started thinking about what kind of capital improvements we might want to make that would help us financially, help us grow our membership and help us serve the varying needs of our members and the community,” Azorsky explained.
Sluyter said the reason the board decided to proceed with an expansion centered around another gymnasium and an indoor turf field was because it not only would impact The J, it would benefit other agencies housed in the Campus as well.
“It impacts us, HBHA and the community,” Sluyter said. “It allows us to do multiple things because of the nature of having wide-open spaces. It’s licensable space for camp, which is busting at the seams, there’s sports and rec programs we currently don’t offer and because it is a gym, if we have to put a bunch of chairs in there to have a community-wide meeting because the Social Hall is being used than that is exactly what we will do.”
The process started with a study that included lay people and J senior staff brainstorming dozens of capital improvement ideas that would be desirable. From there, the staff made six recommendations.
“We did further investigation and we landed on a family recreation complex, because it would provide the most impact for the community and the most benefit for our members,” Azorsky said.
From the beginning of the process, Sluyter said representatives from HBHA and the Campus were included in the decision-making process.
“In 2018 we met with the funders and all the Campus agencies to let them know about the plans and to obtain feedback and input because we wanted everybody to have input in what we were building and what it would look like,” Sluyter said. “To this date the building committee includes a board representative from HBHA and multiple representative from the Campus.”
Azorsky added, “This will be a win-win for all of the community.”
Information regarding the fundraising campaign and construction of the Family Recreation Complex can be found at ImaginetheJKC.org, which is expected to be live today.