On The Move
Akiva hopes to relocate by September 1999,
but has business to attend to first.
JULIE WIENER
Staff Writer
I
n the coming year, a
Conservative synagogue may be
transformed into an Orthodox
day school and a dilapidated
school building may become a "fami-
ly-oriented" shopping center.
With Congregation Beth Achim
joining Adat Shalom Synagogue in
Savings have never been
this widespread or this
but will be responsible for all mainte-
nance and renovation costs, said
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit Chief Operating Officer Mark
Davidoff. UJF is Federation's financial
arm.
Surnow, who has been interested in
Akiva's current site for several years,
will purchase it for $1.35 million,
pending zoning approval. In 1995,
Surnow's request for a zoning change
fashionable! Come in and
visit Upstairs/downstairs
during our storewide
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and walk away with great
home furnishings at
4 0 % - 7 0 %
regular manufacturers'
Future shopping center?
prices. Just look for the
clearance tags and save!
..„
There's never been a better
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7/31
1998
18 Detroit Jewish News
Farmington Hills and
leaving its building
behind, Akiva Hebrew
Day School is poised `to
move in and sell its own
edifice, the 71-year-old
former Anne Lathrup
Elementary School, to
developer Jeffrey
Surnow.
That's if Akiva can
raise approximately $1
million to renovate Beth
Achim. And it's also
contingent upon the City of Lathrup
Village approving a zoning change
allowing Surnow to construct a strip
mall on the Southfield Road site.
The United Jewish Foundation is
buying Beth Achim for $2.5 million
and offering the space for Akiva's use.
Akiva, which enrolls approximately
300 students in nursery school
through 12th grade, will not pay rent
was denied. However, Akiva had
nowhere to move to at that point, so
he did not appeal the decision.
This time, Surnow and Akiva lead-
ership are optimistic that things will
be different.
"I think the city is more receptive
now," said Surnow, who has developed
a number of shopping centers in the
area, including one directly across the