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Architects' rendering of the Meer
Jewish Apartments building

The Gift Of A Place To Live

$1.5 million donation moves an apartment complex
for seniors closer to ground-breaking.

He described the Meers, who were .
unavailable for comment, as "a very
unassuming, low-key, low-profile family."
The Meers, members of
ewish Apartments and
Congregation B'nai Moshe and Allied
Services (JAS) received a $1.5
Jewish Campaign supporters for half a
million gift for the first of two
century, also are making a contribu-
new apartment buildings for
tion to a nursery school at Yeshiva
seniors in West Bloomfield.
Beth Yehudah in Southfield.
Norma Jean and Edward Meer of
"His main reason for giving has
Bloomfield Township will make the
been
because he's been a member of
donation over three years for the Meer
the community for a
Jewish Apartments.
long time," said
The 100-unit building
Marsha Kamin
will be located on the
Goldsmith, JAS execu-
Jewish Community
tive director. "He feels
Campus, west of the
since his business was
D. Dan and Betty
successful in Detroit
Kahn Jewish
that it was important
Community Center.
to give back to that
Edward Meer
community"
worked in the family
Getting the dona-
business, Meer Dental
tion
would have
Supply, as a Wayne
allowed
apartment
State University stu-
construction
to "start
dent before going
yesterday,"
according
into combat in World
War II. The company, Norma Jean and Edward Meer to Kamin, but issues
surrounding nearby
owned by his family
since 1920, was recently sold, allowing wetlands and the construction of a
new road will hold that up.
the Meers to make the gift to JAS.
The Michigan State Housing
"Mr. and Mrs. Meer are quiet phil-
Development
Authority will cover
anthropists who wanted to share their
about
$8
million
of the $1 1 million
good fortune," said JAS President
project
with
a
tax-free
bond, but it
Nathan Upfal.

LONNY GOLDSMITH
Stair Writer

IT

can't be applied for until the township
gives clearance for the project. Once
the bond is approved, ground has to
be broken within 120 days.
The bond will cover basic construc-
tion costs for a bare-bones building,
Kamin said. "The rest of the money
raised will make it a beautiful, state-
of-the-art facility. The gift from the
Meers gave us equity."
Prior to the Meers' gift, JAS got
pledges of $75,000 for the multimedia
library from Madeline and Stanley
Rosen, $50,000 for the resident store
and snack bar by Bessie and Henry
Krolik, and commitments for a tree of
life and elevators, which total
$50,000. That still leaves $1,325,000
left to raise for the project.
Accompanying the Meets' gift is a
$1 million matching grant endow-
ment from the Harry and Jeanette
Weinberg Foundation of Baltimore.
The foundation's primary objective,
according to Kamin, is to give grants
to programs that assist the poor and
elderly. In 1996, the foundation gave
$53 million in grants to Jewish and
secular groups in the U.S. and abroad.
The interest income generated,
approximately $75,000 per year, will
provide subsidies for low-income resi-
dents at the Meer building.
Ten of the building's 100 units will

be subsidized. A separate waiting list
will be made up of people who want
to have their rent subsidized. The
maximum annual income that would
allow someone to live in one of those
units hasn't been determined yet.
The Weinberg Foundation grant
was secured, but the money didn't
come in until the Meers' gift was final-
ized, according to Upfal and Penny
Blumenstein, president of the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.
Designed by Southfield-based archi-
tects Fusco, Shaffer & Pappas, the
Meer Jewish Apartments building will
have 90 one-bedroom units and 10
two-bedroom units. Construction of
the 100,000-square-foot building and
plaza area is slated to begin in the
spring, pending approval of the West
Bloomfield Township board of trustees.
Residents should be able to move in
the spring or summer of 2000.
A second new building, Phase VU,
will be built two years after the Meer
building fills up.
Kamin said that the board didn't
want to take on the additional debt
now and " we can't ask for an unlimit-
ed amount of tax-exempt bonds" from
the state.
JAS is getting township approval for
everything now so "we won't have to
go through it again," Kamin said.

❑

11/13

1998

Detroit Jewish News

9

