New building construction budget approved

By Marcy Friedland, Capital Campaign & Planned Giving Director

A special Board meeting was called on Aug. 31 to review and approve the construction budget of Jewish Federation of Greater Naples’ Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center. After welcoming Board members to the meeting, Board chair Jane Schiff introduced Building Committee Chair Marc Saperstein, who reviewed the expected project cost and anticipated project timetable, including an expected Oct. 1 construction start.

Schiff shared that the amount raised by the Capital Campaign was presently at $9.96M — a culmination of the $1M Challenge Matching Grant, which, though remarkably close to goal, had not hit it quite yet. The deadline for the Challenge Matching Grant has been extended to allow everyone in the community to help us reach our $1M goal.

Steve Strome, finance committee chair, presented an overview of the finance committee’s cash flow analysis, budget projections and the viability of going forward with the new building. Schiff fielded questions from Board members before Saperstein called for the vote to approve a $10.5M budget for the construction of the building, which the board unanimously approved.

“This is a monumental day for Federation and Jews in the Greater Naples area,” shared a teary-eyed Schiff as she thanked the Board members, Federation President/CEO Jeffrey Feld, Saperstein and Strome.

“This has been a long time in the making and would not have been possible without the support of Jane as chair, Jeffrey, the building committee members and the entire community,” added Saperstein.

Karen Deutsch, chair elect and capital campaign chair, thanked the task force members, reminding everyone, “There’s still more fundraising that needs to be achieved as well as an additional $4.5M endowment to run the building.”

We are targeting the first week of October to commence the construction phase of the building and will continually update the community regarding its progress. We cannot stress enough that “we cannot do this without you!”

For more information on how you can contribute to the Nina Iser Jewish Cultural Center Federation Capital Campaign, contact me at 239-263-4205 or mfriedland@jewishnaples.org.

“Thank you to the board members, donors and our professional staff, who have implemented programming and cultural events for the Greater Naples area. In my six years as CEO, I have seen exponential growth and I rejoice in the fact that Federation is now positioned to welcome and nurture the much larger and diverse Greater Naples community,” comments Feld.