Jones Lang LaSalle

JCC buys land for new center in W. Windsor
Friday, December 30, 2005
By BRIAN X. McCRONE Staff Writer

EWING - The owners of the Jewish Community Center on Lower Ferry Road yesterday finalized the purchase of an 80-acre property along Clarksville Road in West Windsor, a spokesman for the JCC said.

The $3.07 million land purchase by the United Jewish Federation (UJF) is the first step toward construction of a $22-$23 million regional center that will dwarf the current facility in Ewing, spokesman Paul Schindel said this week.

Preliminary plans have called for an 84,000-square-foot facility - twice the size of the current center.

"We're still refining what specific facilities are going to be on site," Schindel said. "But we're probably looking at $22-$23 million . . . news of this closing has ratcheted up the interests of the community and the number of contributions."

Schindel and West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said any plans still need the approval of the township planning board before construction could begin on the heavily wooded property.

Ground breaking could begin in 15 to 18 months, Schindel said, with many of the architectural and engineering plans still to be completed and presented to the planning board.
"We have been talking to them about their plans," Hsueh said this week. "We have tried to work with them."

Sale of the existing JCC campus in Ewing has yet to be discussed by the UJF, Schindel said, adding that the 13-acre property will not be on the market in the immediate future.
Ewing Tax Assessor Jeff Burd said the assessed value of the property is $2.9 million, but the actual sales price of such properties often is much higher.

JCC officials have told some families involved in programs at the Ewing campus about the possibility that some activities, including a nursery school for about 50 children, will end by late next year.

"In the interest that none of them get shut out of alternatives, it is a possibility that we will have to curtail the nursery school (by next fall)," Schindel said. "There are nursery schools all around and there are Jewish nursery schools all around."

But most of the center's programs will remain running until the new facility is ready, he said.
The new home will be well equipped, according to initial plans discussed by Schindel last December.

The UJF's 80-acre community center in West Windsor will feature a state-of-the-art fitness center, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, an indoor track and a banquet hall. It also will provide children's day care and summer camps for all area residents, Schindel said previously.
Talk of the JCC moving usually is followed by the question of what will happen to the renowned "Trenton bathhouse" at the Ewing site.

The bathhouse, which noted architect Louis Kahn said was his architectural turning point in the 20th century, is a looming concrete structure that was built in the 1950s. Enthusiasts say its value to contemporary architecture is priceless.

But the current property owners apparently do not deem it worth the more than $1 million it would take to restore.

"Between now and ribbon breaking we will sell the property in Ewing and the new owner will have the privilege of having the Kahn bathhouse," Schindel said.

NOTE: Contact Brian X. McCrone at bmccrone@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5716.