HARRY KIRSBAUM
Staff Writer
E
veryone agrees it shouldn't have come to
this.
Yet, after 12 years of hoping to expand
ar its present building next to the Jewish
Community Center on the Euge!.e and Marcia
Applebaum Campus in West Bloomfield, the
Holocaust Memorial Center is moving forward with
its backup plan to build a new museum at a site in
Farmington Hills.
The 8.5-acre parcel is in a commercial section of
Orchard Lake Road between a restaurant and a
bank, just north of 12 Mile Road. Included on the
property is the former AMC Old Orchard Theatres,
now leased to a church.
This is not a story that pits the HMC against the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, whose
real estate/banking arm, the United Jewish
Foundation (UJF), owns the land on the Applebaum
Campus.
Instead, it's a story of agencies with differing prior-
ities and timetables. On one side is the Federation,
the umbrella planning and fund-raising agency for
Detroit Jewry. On the other, is the HMC, the
nation's first freestanding Holocaust museum; its
leaders have waited anxiously for a much-needed
expansion.
"To some extent, time was our enemy," said Mark
Davidoff, Federation chief operaL;ng officer and
_executive director. "The HMC has a timetable, and
we have a 200-acre campus and we're doing very
long-term planning. We have to have each compo-
nent fit into that plan in the right timetable. Our
timetables didn't meet."
HMC founder and director Rabbi Charles
Rosenzveig said, "It just didn't work our. They had
problems, we had problems — we had no other
choice. The time had come, ultimately, after 12
years, to take a step."
The Plan
Nothing can happen until the HMC closes on the
Orchard Lake Road property, which is tied up in a
zoning lawsuit between the city of Farmington Hills
and its current owner, Southfield-based Ari-El
Enterprises, over a past request to use the land.
According to Dale Countegan, Farmington Hills
planning director, Ari-El was looking ro do a com-
mercial development of the property zoned as an
office district. When the HMC began to look at the
property as an expansion site, thy. city said it would
be acceptable.
As early as July 9, the Farmington Hills City
Council will vote on a consent judgment relative to
the HMC plan, Countegan said. If the city and the
property owner approve the judgment, then the
property can be sold.
Rabbi Rosenzveig said he will begin construction
of a 50,000- to 60,000-square-foot museum in
Farmington Hills in November; he already has com-
mitments from four S1 million donors. The HMC
has developed a. line of credit with an unnamed
bank, he said. The property has a price tag of S2
Related commentary: page 5
start to give, when they see something is being
million; the rabbi estimates S15 million for the total
done," the rabbi said.
project.
Construction plans are not finalized, but could
Change In Plan
include an existing auditorium from the theater
Within
months, the JCC ran into trouble with
building or razing the entire structure. The new
funding
its .own renovation and expansion, which
museum will include larger exhibits, library and
affected the proposed new entrances.
meeting space. Plans also call for a memorial garden
According to Mark Hauser, who then co-chaired
as well as a Museum of European Jewish Heritage
the UJF real estate committee, construction prices
that will show Jewish life before World War II, and
rose and unforeseen problems developed.
an International Institute of the Righteous to
JCC's. heating and air conditioning system —
remember those who saved Jewish lives in World
which everyone at first thought was "just fine" —
War II, and those who have saved lives throughout
would have to be replaced for $5 million, said
history.
Hauser, UJF's current president. "It just went from
Dedicated in 1984, the HMC — at 12,000 square
there."
feet — was already bursting at the
During a meeting with Rabbi
seams five years later, when Rabbi
Rosenzveig in February 2000, Davidoff,
Rosenzveig started to press the
Slatkin and Hauser told him, with costs
Federation for approval to expand it
at $35 million or $40 million for every-
west.
thing the JCC wanted to do, new
According to Robert Slatkin, the
entrances weren't likely, Hauser said.
UJF's immediate past president,
"Even if we had that much money,
that area was already master-
the JCC needs $7.5 to $10 million for
planned for a small gymnasium on
an endowment to keep themselves
the original site plan and the JCC
going," he told Rabbi Rosenzveig. "And
always intended to build it.
it just doesn't look like we can give you
"Time would go by, and he
an answer, but it looks like it's probably
[Rabbi Rosenzveig] seemed to
not going to happen."
either forget that that's what [the
But there was an alternative.
master plan] said, or he just felt
The
UJF offered, at no cost, a 3-acre
that his use for that was more
site on the western Applebaum
important," Slatkin said. "And, on
Campus, close to the Norma Jean and
occasion, the subject would rear its
Mark Davidoff
Edward Meer Jewish Apartments. The
head again."
new site was unacceptable to the rabbi
Plans were drawn up in February
and the HMC board because the same
1999 by the Federation for two new
conditions would apply to the new sire.
entrances to the JCC's 350,000-square-foot D. Dan
"We were willing to sign the previous agreement
and Betty Kahn Building on the south and east
because we had a building," the rabbi said. "It saved
sides, allowing the HMC to expand.
us a lot of money. But to go and to start building
The HMC signed an amendment to the original
from scratch in another place here, and with all
1982 agreement with the UJF: as long as the JCC
these conditions, it doesn't make sense."
decides to build the two new entrances and reaches a
Hauser reiterated that the conditions apply to all
capital campaign goal of $25 million, the HMC
non-Federation agencies building on campus.
would be allowed to expand outward, towards the
"When we entered into the agreement with HCR,
east and south parking lots. The space behind to the
the company that built the Danto nursing home,
west of the HMC still would be used for the new
every one of these things was in that agreement. We
gym, part of the JCC's massive renovation project.
made them put up $2 million in escrow. We just
Conditions, which all non-Federation agencies
want to be sure that no one owes money or runs our
building on the campus must agree to, included:
of money, and that was why some of the restrictions
• The HMC needed UJF approval for all plans
were put in this," he said. "Knowing major contrib-
and construction.
utors is just our policy."
• The HMC would provide the UJF with a list of
"We're not Danto," said Rabbi Rosenzveig. "We
all prospective donors of amounts in excess of
don't have anything against the Federation. We have
$25,000 to coordinate with Federation/UJF's
our priorities and they have their priorities."
Millennium Campaign for Detroit's Jewish Future
and the JCC Capital/Endowment Campaign.
• The HMC must have 100 percent of the cash
Last Chance
necessary to complete construction in a lien-free
In a last-ditch effort, the HMC offered to draw up
manner.
expansion plans containing a shared lobby with the
Normally, Rabbi Rosenzveig would not give up so
JCC, allowing the JCC to use the original JCC
much control to the UJF, but in this case, the offer
entrance.
was acceptable to him and the HMC board. They
"We said, basically, we don't have the money, but if
signed the agreement with Slarkin and the UJF on
you want to explore that, feel free to do that," Hauser
Feb. 12, 1999.
said. "They designed a common entrance, but they
"Bottom line was we were so enthusiastic when we
had no idea what it would cost, and their idea was that
signed, in spite of conditions that were almost unbe-
they would pay for half and we would pay for half"
100 percent cash needed. How do you
lievable
Hauser said the JCC had no money in the budget
start? When you start to build, that's when people
C
6/29
2001
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