By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer

Boonshoft CJCE

On Aug. 25, the Jewish Federation board voted unanimously to relocate the Federation’s administrative offices to the Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education in Centerville.

Since the sale of the Jesse Philips Building and Jewish community complex in Trotwood to United Theological Seminary in 2005, the Federation has rented office space at the Soin Building in downtown Dayton. With its lease up at the end of February 2011, the Federation decided to explore other options.

“We were looking at the possibility of remaining in the downtown area, leasing space elsewhere, and relocating to the CJCE,” said Federation Executive Vice President Larry Skolnick. “A number of individuals were very generous with us in terms of offers they made to lease other space.”

In the process, Skolnick said, a donor who currently wishes to remain anonymous offered to cover the majority of costs to relocate Federation staff to the CJCE. The move, Skolnick said, will save the Federation approximately $120,000 per year in operating expenses.

“It will allow us to significantly reduce our annual overhead at a time when there are more and increased needs in the community for social services,” he said. “It also allows us to bring all of our agencies and staff, other than Covenant House, under one roof.”

The Boonshoft CJCE, which opened in 2003, houses the Dayton Jewish Community Center offices, its Early Childhood Services classrooms, the Federation’s banquet facility and kosher kitchen.

Plans call for offices to be built on an 800-square foot addition to the northeast corner of the Boonshoft CJCE. The DJCC will also close its fitness center on the lower level of the CJCE on Nov. 1, to be remodeled for additional office space.

“With so many fitness options to choose from in that part of town over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a significant decline in use of our fitness center,” Skolnick said. “Since it’s not a mission-driven program, we felt that space could be better used to help reduce operating costs and put money into programs and services that are mission-based.”

The chair of the CJCE remodeling/building project is Ira Segalewitz, who oversaw Temple Beth Or’s  2008-09 building renovation and expansion.

Skolnick estimates Federation staff will move to the Boonshoft CJCE in late February or early March. Before the end of this year, the Federation’s food pantry, now at the downtown office, will move to Covenant Manor, Federation’s senior housing facility in Trotwood. Covenant Manor is also a Federation Jewish Senior Service Agency site; JSSA will expand its staffing there from two to five days a week.

Federation President Dr. Gary Youra said the Federation and DJCC will continue to use sites that are centrally located for meetings that have typically been held downtown.

“And we’ll continue to hold programs throughout the community — north, south, east, and west — based on the demographics and where it’s most appropriate to hold each program,” Youra said. “This is a move of administrative offices. Everything else will be business as usual.”