TORONTO — UJA Federation of Greater Toronto says it needs to raise approximately $40 million before it can “responsibly break ground” on the building that will replace the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre (BJCC).
The Gales Family Pavilion sits north of the site of the former BJCC, which was demolished earlier this year. A new JCC is slated to be finished by 2014. [Frances Kraft photo]
The BJCC, which was demolished earlier this year, closed in September 2009, and the new building is still expected to be finished by 2014, according to Howard English, the federation’s vice-president of corporate communications.
The BJCC was located on what is now called the Sherman Campus, which also includes the Lipa Green Centre and the Donald Gales Family Pavilion.
The Gales Pavilion, which opened in October 2009, houses fitness facilities and classes as part of the Prosserman Jewish Community Centre (the entity that will include the building replacing the BJCC). The new JCC has 620 paid fitness members, an increase of more than 100 in a year, English said. The membership of 650 that was reported in The CJN last February included “promotional memberships,” he clarified.
Before the BJCC closed, it had more than 1,200 fitness members.
The cost of completing Phase 2 of the Sherman Campus – which will also include a new Koffler Centre of the Arts and Leah Posluns Theatre, and the Sarah & Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre – will be approximately $110 million, for a total anticipated cost of $150 million for both phases, English said.
“We need about $40 million more before we feel we can responsibly break ground… but we’re confident of doing that,” English wrote in an initial e-mail interview.
He added that more than 90 per cent of the funds for the project “are coming primarily from donors, with assistance from a $15-million provincial grant for our GTA campus projects. We are being financially prudent by waiting to start Sherman Phase 2 until more money is raised, because we don’t want to over-extend ourselves and we want to proceed without delay once construction begins.”
Phase 1 of the project cost $40 million, including the $10 million Gales Pavilion, renovations to the Lipa Green Centre, and reconstruction of the parking lot, English said in a follow-up phone interview.
In a 2007 e-mail that was forwarded to The CJN by former BJCC member Gordon Akum, Ted Sokolsky, president and CEO of UJA Federation, wrote that the BJCC would only be dismantled “once the funding of phase 2 is confirmed.” Sokolsky’s e-mail was a reply to Akum, addressing concerns about the redevelopment plans.
Last week, English said he couldn’t speak for Sokolsky, who was not reachable, but he said that Sokolsky may “not necessarily” have been referring to all the funding.
“We have enough money to begin construction,” English said. “We’re proceeding prudently by waiting, as Ted indicated, until there is more funding in place before we proceed. That’s not to say there isn’t funding in place to begin construction. The full funding is not in place, but that is not a cause for concern… We’re confident of being able to raise the money, and fundraising is progressing.
“We have enough money to start, but we don’t want to start until the bulk of the $40 million is in.”
In the interim, he said, if construction doesn’t begin by summer, the grounds on which the dismantled BJCC stands will be used as parkland for the community.
English stressed that the Prosserman JCC has become “a vibrant hub of Jewish life” with state-of-the-art equipment.
“We want to look ahead,” he said, “and when we look ahead, the future looks really good.”
