By Meryl Feld
Editor
The 32,000 square-foot addition to the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City is set to open on schedule in November.
“Our mission is to impact the community in an environment of Jewish values, tradition and history, but you can’t impact the community if the whole community can’t participate in your programming and you’re turning people away,” Jim Sluyter, the CEO and president of the JCC of Greater KC, told The Chronicle. Sluyter has been at The J for 21 years.
That’s exactly what The J hopes the expansion will do — open their programming up to the entire community. “Long term the biggest challenge we’ve had is almost all of our programs have been maxed out,” Sluyter said. The J has had waiting lists for programming such as preschool, summer camp and their art program. “By expanding we’re able to make a bigger impact on the community by having more people participate in our programming.”
The J expects a 10-15% increase in membership after the completion of the expansion. They expect the pandemic to delay this membership jump though.
The new space will offer multi-purpose functionality that the J hopes will benefit the entire community, as well as allowing The J to grow. Sluyter said that most people don’t know that Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy and The J were having to rent off-site facilities to accommodate their programming. This was one of many factors that led to designing the expansion to include wide-open spaces that can be utilized in multiple ways. The two biggest spaces in the expansion will be a second gymnasium and an indoor turf field. This will allow The J to offer activities like pickle ball, volleyball and futsal. “If we needed to, we can put 300 chairs in there and have a guest speaker come,” Sluyter said. These big spaces will also provide the needed space to bring the J’s summer camp indoors when it is raining or too hot.
The expansion will double the capacity of The J’s art program with a new ceramics room. This will help get more seniors into the art program, of which the waiting list has been fairly extensive. The Youth Fitness Zone is not only being relocated to the expansion but will double in size as well. It will offer new amenities and activities to keep kids engaged, active and living a healthy lifestyle.
The J raised $13.2 million in total for the expansion and renovations. “There was a huge outpouring of support for this campaign,” Sluyter said. The lead donor was Michael Staenberg of St. Louis. He contributed roughly $4 million to the campaign. The expanded portion of the building will be named after his family: The Staenberg Family Recreation Center. “So often our campaigns require a lot of funding from the local community,” Sluyter said, “So it is wonderful to see money being raised outside of the Kansas City area for something that the Kansas City community is going to benefit from. Because so often our campaigns require a lot of funding from the local community. In this case there was a big chunk of the campaign that was funded from external sources.”
The J Capital Campaign that funded the project exceeded their initial goals, allowing for much-needed renovations to the rest of the building, including the theater wing, the front lobby and the building entrance. “We are securing the future of the rest of the building, so to speak, by taking care of a bunch of capital needs to make sure that this building is here and in good condition for decades to come,” Sluyter said.
The campaign is also funding a new outdoor family-friendly splash pad to open for the summer of 2021.
The J is on schedule to complete the expansion project in November, after a year of construction. The J originally planned on 3 to 4 months of renovations after the completion of the expansion, but now only expect a couple of weeks of work after the expansion opens. With the building closed due to the pandemic, they were able to work faster than expected inside.
“We are in a better situation than most Jewish Community Centers around the country, which speaks to the vitality and strength of the Kansas City community. But no doubt the pandemic has impacted our institution financially as well as in usage and in membership during this time,” Sluyter said.
After closing their facilities in mid-March, The J is now open to the public — following recommended proper safety measures such as extra sanitation, limiting numbers and social distancing. Sluyter said, “It’s really gratifying to see how much of the community is supporting the Jewish Community Center even while not actively using the facilities.” Roughly 85% of members have continued to pay full dues during the pandemic closure.
Helping contribute to a lasting impact on Jewish life in Kansas City is an honor for Sluyter. “I am extremely proud and excited that I am part of a community-wide effort to make sure that families and future generations get to benefit from this wonderful institution as much as my family did as they grew up,” he said.
“I was thoroughly amazed and appreciative of how well the community responded to this campaign and how energetic the community was. It exceeded all my original thoughts… Thank you to the community for the outpouring of support.”
