An update on the Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center

By Marc Saperstein, Building Committee Chair

First, a special thank you to those of you who have contributed to the Capital Campaign thus far as well as those who have volunteered their time to work on this important project for the Greater Naples Jewish community.

It’s been a very challenging few months, which has slowed our timing to obtain Collier County approval on our site plan. I am pleased to say, however, that we have made good progress on the issues confronting us.

Temple Shalom’s very generous offer to lease 4.3 acres of land for 50 years at Chai ($18/year) to Jewish Federation of Greater Naples was the key to making the project viable when we were unable to find land at an affordable price in Collier County. Despite this wonderful opportunity, we have experienced some recent bumps in the road.

Increased water management requirements

There was an increase in the water management requirements to meet Collier County regulations to offset needed changes to Pine Ridge Road, which was driven by safety and traffic flow considerations. Because there was insufficient space available on the far western tract of land, where our new building will be located, the additional space now required for water management retention had to be accommodated on Temple’s already developed property. This additional water management area means Temple will not be able to expand to the east of its current sanctuary and social room in the future.

This was compounded by Temple having to provide Collier County “rightof-way” land along the entire frontage of its property, without any compensation, for Pine Ridge Road to be expanded to six lanes in the future.

After extensive discussions with our civil engineers, Temple’s consultants and leadership, we were able to address these challenges.

Parking requirements

Another significant challenge was Collier County’s parking requirements for the combined campus. We had to request a parking deviation to move forward with our proposed site plan. This had been on hold pending resolution of the water management challenges. Since Temple and Federation have completely countercyclical activities and parking needs, our request for this parking deviation was approved by Collier County in early June.

Increasing costs

We still have several hurdles left to overcome, including increasing project cost projections and achieving our Capital Campaign goal of $15 million dollars.

COVID-19 has resulted in significant cost and supply availability challenges because many suppliers, both in the U.S. and globally, had to shut down their factories for a period of time. Steel is now in short supply, driving prices up.

Between March 24 and May 7, the cost of the project increased $6,000 per day, or more than a quarter-of-a-million dollars, during this timeframe. In addition, steel bar joists, which are critical structural elements of the building, are now delayed by about six months.

We have been working through numerous value engineering options to reduce costs and find ways to address the material availability issues, but this inflationary pressure is expected to continue for another few months at a minimum.

Raising funds

Regarding the Capital Campaign, we have made great progress. We have commitments from over 330 families for $8.8 million toward our goal of $15 million. More than 1,500 donors participate in the Annual Community Campaign and we are hopeful those who have not contributed to the Capital Campaign thus far, will do so soon.

For the Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center to become a reality, it will require the approval of our final site and building plans by Collier County and continued financial support from the Greater Naples Jewish community.

If you have questions about the project, please email me, Marc Saperstein, at mjs0821@aol.com. To contribute to the Capital Campaign, you can contact Marcy Friedland, capital campaign director at mfriedland@jewishnaples.org or 239-263-4205.

We can’t do this without you!