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March 16, 2001/Adar 21, 5761, Vol. 53, No.24
Ready, set, break ground
BARRY COHEN
Community Editor
With $30 million in cash, land and pledges, groundbreaking for the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus is now set. It will be 10 a.m., Sunday, May 20, at the 29-acre site at Scottsdale Road and Sweetwater Avenue in Scottsdale.
"We are thrilled to be able to tell the public to hold the date," said Ron Bookbinder, chairman of the campus task force.
Laying the foundation and constructing the shell of the building is scheduled to begin mid-June, said Fred Zeidman, assistant executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix.
Official opening is scheduled for Aug. 13, 2002.
The only major hurdle remaining for campus construction is lighting of the athletic field. At a Dec. 7 meeting, the Scottsdale Design Review Board accepted every aspect of the campus except field lighting. While the Scottsdale City Council approved the athletic field lighting, the review board said questions remain concerning the height of the fixtures, light levels and the impact of overflow lighting on the neighborhood surrounding the campus.
Campus officials will attend a still-to-be-scheduled public meeting of the review board, in the Kiva room at the Scottsdale City Council Building, 3939 Drinkwater Ave., with an update on lighting specifications and standards.
On April 15, officials will file for grading and drainage permits. The land will be graded, or leveled, from its natural state to lay the foundation for construction and include a system for storm-water runoff, said Bookbinder.
"These are not major issues. It is standard operating procedure," he said.
The 114,000-square-foot campus building will house the federation, Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, Bureau of Jewish Education, Council for Jews with Special Needs and satellite classrooms for the Phoenix Hebrew Academy.
According to a statement from Langdon Wilson Architecture, the building will be 12-sided, reminiscent of the 12-sided Star of David. Twelve columns will support the main room, representing the 12 tribes of Israel, with two on the outside and 10 on the inside, symbolic of the 10 lost tribes.
D.L. Withers of Phoenix is constructing the facility.
When the community campus began fund raising in spring 1999, officials pledged not to begin construction until they had obtained pledges for the entire $25 million planners thought it would cost, said Art Paikowsky, federation executive vice president.
Initial calculations included fees for land, architects, engineers and construction, among other variables, said Zeidman, but since then, more "real dollar" information has become known.
The original estimate was based in part on building the campus on a site the corner of 40th Street and Shea Boulevard in Phoenix worth $1.25 million. That site was later sold after Bill Levine, a Valley businessman, donated the current parcel, worth $5.2 million, in memory of his wife, Ina.
Project estimates at the new location are $31.2 million, including land, the building, athletic fields, lighting and endowment, said Zeidman. He said fund raising is just $750,000 short of that goal.
The fact that more than $31 million has been pledged for a campus is a testament to the Valley Jewish community, said Paikowsky. "It is outside the realm of reality that we have done this."
He added that he has some "major irons in the fire" to raise the remaining dollars needed to keep the full-funding promise made almost two years ago.
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