Construction schedule is set for 100 senior-citizen apartments.

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HARRY KI RS BAU
StalTWriter

fter months of fleshing out
details, the Jewish
Apartments and Services has
gotten the green light from
West Bloomfield Township to build
200 new senior-citizen apartments.
The two new buildings and a com-
mon area to connect them will rise on
the Jewish Community Campus north
of the Hechtman II Apartments as a
$12 million effort to shorten a grow-
ing waiting list for Jewish senior hous-
ing.
Although groundbreaking will be
Aug. 29, real construction won't start
until the first layer of a new road is
built to handle the construction
trucks, said Marsha Goldsmith
Kamin; JAS executive director.
Once that layer is built, "major

Harry Kirsbaum can be reached at

(248) 354-6060, ext. 244, or by e-mail
at: hkirsbaum@thejewishnews.com

7/23
1999

6 Detroit Jewish News

The 326 people who were on the
earth movement" will be needed to get
waiting list for a place in the existing
rid of a hill on the site before the
Hechtman II Apartments as of April
foundation is built, she said.
15, 1998, will get "first shot" on the -
"They'd love to pour the footings
Meer
list, Kamin said, but only for the
before a major snow starts in January
one-bedroom
apartments. The two-
or February," she added.
bedroom units are being treated as "a
Township permits for the project,
which was first announced
more than a year ago, were
held up while engineers and
planners found a way to cre-
a:
ate more wetlands on the
campus. They replace a few
thousand square feet of
200 new apartments will help
swampy area that has to be
drained and filled for the
ease a growing demand for
new road. The road and a
housing for Jewish seniors. The
new traffic light on Maple
Road, across from the
waiting list already numbers 734.
entrance to Henry Ford
Hospital, were deemed vital
to easing traffic flow as activ-
brand new market.
ities grow at the JCC's soon-to-be-ren-
A new waiting list for Meer may be
ovated D. Dan & Betty Kahn
started in the spring, assuming con-
Building.
struction follows the schedule for
The Norma Jean and Edward Meer
completion in December 2000.
Jewish Apartments will have 76 one-
"We really want to have the shovel
bedroom and 24 two-bedroom units.

in the ground, and the construction
trailer out here because, God forbid, if
we go ahead and advertise and accu-
mulate all these names of hopefuls,
and there's a delay in construction ..."
she said.
Right now, 734 individuals have
1,013 active applications on various
Jewish apartment waiting lists. The
average wait for an apartment is about
three years at Hechtman Apartments,
where the average age of a resident is
89 years old.
The Hechtman II apartments, the
only other JAS non-subsidized hous-
ing, costs $808 a month with $104
per month for one meal a day, five
days a week. Being Jewish is not a
requirement to live there, although
only about 10 percent of residents are
non-Jews.
Kamin said the non-subsidized
Meer apartment rent rate has not been
figured, because no contracts have
been signed and the costs haven't been
tallied.
Norma Jean and Edward Meer,
members of Congregation B'nai

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