Question?
Handleman Hall Ready
SWIM
STAYING P•1
1311•11ESS 1FO
GIME
EARS
JCC's expanded, renovated social hall offers
latest technology for parties and events.
SHELLI DORFMAN
Staff Writer
F
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b. having the laser surgery to correct his color blindness
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d. his great sales
e. all of the above
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10/8
1999
18 Detroit Jewish News
(248) 356-6000
or a Jewish Community
Center building that seeming-
ly had everything, only now
does the D. Dan & Betty
Kahn Building have a fully equipped
kosher social hall.
"It's drop-dead gorgeous," said Matt
Prentice, food service manager.
After years of lacking usable banquet
space, the JCC in West Bloomfield has
unveiled the David and Marion
Handleman Hall and Auditorium.
The room, which JCC executive
director David Sorkin called "the most
elaborate" of the facility's rental areas,
was created through a $1.2 million
expansion and renovation of the former
Shiffman Hall. Although not expected
to be a fully operational banquet facility
until the spring of 2000, the hall is cur-
rently available for non-food-related
business, Sorkin said.
The first official use of the hall, amid
saws and ladders, was a September JCC
board meeting. "We wanted to be the
first to use the room," Sorkin said.
Prentice, president of Unique
Restaurant Corporation in Bingham
Farms, is the kosher caterer hired by
the JCC. He will oversee the 20,000-
square-foot food service area, which
includes a dairy kitchen. A kosher
meat caterer, in partnership with
Prentice, will be hired soon and avail-
able upon request. This caterer may be
off-site or a new meat kitchen might
be constructed, Sorkin said.
Expect only the newest in banquet
hall equipment in Handleman Hall,
which can accommodate 350 guests ban-
quet-style and 650 for meetings. The
room has videoconference capabilities,
sound amplification equipment for music
or speakers, surround-sound and video
projector units. An infrared system was
installed to amplify sound for hearing-
impaired guests. Twenty-seven speakers
cover the total area of the ceiling, allow-
ing for even sound throughout the room.
No grand opening gala has been set,
as the Handleman family is in mourn-
ing for the late Marion Handleman. She
endowed the room with her husband,
David.
A plaque and an annual lecture will
memorialize the donors of Shiffman
Hall, which was used heavily for general
JCC purposes, but not marketed as a
banquet facility during the last three to
five years because of its worn appear-
ance.
Because of Jewish holidays and late-
ending Shabbats, Handleman Hall may
be booked only for 50 viable weekend
days, Prentice said. With six confirmed
social events in the hall — the first is
next March — many tentative dates
already have been booked. Unique
Restaurant Corporation receives daily
inquiries, said Elaine Denton, a URC
spokeswoman.
According to Denton, Handleman
Hall's minimum cost for food and bev-
erage service is $12,500 on Sundays,
$15,000 on Saturdays and $5,000 on
weekdays.
Handleman Hall
is "drop-dead
gorgeous.
— Matt Prentice
The Rosenberg Complex Activity
Room, which accommodates 200, has a
minimum usage fee of $5,000 on
Sundays and $3,500 on weekend days
and during the week. Prentice said this
is comparable to the cost of similar-sized
halls in other facilities.
Many smaller rooms are available in
the Kahn Building, as well as three mul-
tipurpose rooms for groups of 50 to
150. The Aaron DeRoy Theatre can
accommodate just under 200 guests for
theater parties.
With URC the center's sole caterer,
the same menu is available at the same
cost for food and beverage service in
each room. Rooms not booked six
months prior to a date will be offered at
a discounted price, Prentice said.
The JCC's kosher dairy restaurant,
overseen by Prentice, still is expected
to open early next year. He said his
kosher baking company has been
inspected. Approval by the Vaad
Harabonim/Council of Orthodox
Rabbis of Greater Detroit is expected
in time for him to begin parve
kosher baking, with an on-site super-
visor, on Oct. 1 1 . Fl