Community center in west St. Louis County to begin $13M renovation, add adult day center - St. Louis Business Journal
The renovation, which will touch nearly every aspect of the building, includes the addition of a new adult day center. The Jewish Community Center (JCC) in St. Louis County will begin a $13 million renovation at its 87,930-square-foot Marilyn Fox Building in Chesterfield, to create a state-of-the-art recreation facility with an adult day center. The renovation will touch nearly every aspect of the building, including expansion of kitchen facilities, pickleball courts, upgrades to building’s infrastructure such as security and communications systems. The project is funded by a capital campaign and $2 million from the state of Missouri. The JCC, which has served as a central meeting place for the Jewish community for 130 years, also runs the Staenberg Family Complex in Creve Coeur and Camp Sabra in Lake of the Ozarks.
Published : a month ago by Gloria Lloyd in Business
A nonprofit community center in St. Louis County will undergo a $13 million renovation beginning this month at one of its properties to create a state-of-the-art recreation facility with an adult day center.
The Jewish Community Center (JCC) will renovate one of its two locations, the 87,930-square-foot Marilyn Fox Building at 16801 Baxter Road in Chesterfield. The organization, often referred to as the "J,” also runs the Staenberg Family Complex in Creve Coeur, which has about 155,000 square feet, and Camp Sabra in Lake of the Ozarks.
The nonprofit agency has served as a central meeting place for the Jewish community in St. Louis for 130 years, and its current locations are a multigenerational gathering place open to all backgrounds and faiths, according to its website. The organization offers educational, cultural, social, Jewish identity-building and recreational programming on its Creve Coeur, Chesterfield and lake campuses, focusing on five core services: early childhood education, day and resident campuses, culture and education, group social services and fitness and wellness.
The renovation of the Marilyn Fox Building, set to start in mid-April, will touch nearly every aspect of the building, a spokeswoman for the JCC said. Constructed in 1996, the building was last updated with a minor renovation in 2008, the architect for the project, St. Louis-based architecture, interior and master planning firm HDA Architects, said in a news release. The building was constructed on an 11.4-acre campus at the corner of Baxter and Wildhorse Creek roads.
The project should wrap up by the fourth quarter of 2025, according to the release. The project is funded from a capital campaign and $2 million from the state of Missouri, the St. Louis Jewish Light reported. Further details on the financing were not available.
“While the entire project is amazing, one of the things we are most excited about is adding an adult day center to serve the Chesterfield community,” JCC spokeswoman Tracy Bowler said. The new adult day center will be the organization’s second, and will serve senior citizens as well as young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the organization said. It will have a capacity of 36 participants and is a “significant element that addresses a much-needed community service,” officials said. The project also will add new locker rooms, a new lobby and gathering space to the Chesterfield location, according to the release. The existing gymnasium, fitness center and Early Childhood Center will be overhauled into more modern facilities.
See renderings of the renovation in the gallery below:
The list of improvements will include expanded kitchen facilities, pickleball courts and upgrades to the building’s infrastructure such as security and communications systems, HDA said.
The entrance will be recreated with a new metal wall panel system designed to better greet entering guests, according to the release.
Construction, with ISC Contracting as the general contractor, will take place in phases so that the facility will remain open to members throughout the process while minimizing disruption, officials said.
The JCC, a tax exempt organization since 1953, posted revenue of $24.1 million and expenses of $21.9 million in 2022, according to its most recent IRS filing.
The organization's longtime president and CEO, Lynn Wittels, retired Feb. 29 from the role after 18 years. To find a successor, the board of the JCC created an Office of the CEO that will oversee the transition, led by board Chair Monte Sandler and comprised of several top leadership positions in the JCC.
Other partners working on the JCC’s construction project are Avison Young as the owner’s representative, ODA studio for interior design, KPFF Consulting Engineers as the structural engineer, Engenuity as the MEP/FP engineer, Stock and Associates Consulting Engineers as the civil engineer and Landscape Technologies for landscape architecture.
HDA Senior Project Manager Steven Mueller is overseeing the architectural team working on the project, the firm said.
“The Marilyn Fox Building will truly shine as a destination recreation facility for not only Chesterfield but for the greater St. Louis region,” HDA Senior Principal Patrick Holleran said in a statement.
The Chesterfield facility is near more than $2 billion of planned developments that would create a new downtown Chesterfield area. It’s across Wildhorse Creek Road from the $500 million, 80-acre Wildhorse Village lakefront project from St. Louis-based developer CRG, which will create a mixed-use development with houses, office, retail and restaurant space with trails, walking paths, recreation areas and public art.
Another massive mixed-use project to create a town center, the $2 billion Downtown Chesterfield project, is proposed to replace Chesterfield Mall, which is scheduled to close in August. That project is from Overland-based developer The Staenberg Group, which is led by Michael Staenberg. A $35 million donation from Staenberg and his wife, Carol, funded the JCC's Creve Coeur complex in 2009, and they have also funded the construction of Jewish community center facilities in three other Midwest states. Among the projects Staenberg has primarily funded was the $11 million expansion of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City in 2019. Staenberg is a lay leader working on the Maryland Fox Building renovation, the Jewish Light reported.