FIRST REPORT: The Lakewood Cheder has just gotten the approval to use their new Vaser Avenue building for a school. The 218,000 square foot building situated on 13 acres in Industrial Park, will house all classes of the Cheder from Primary through 8th grade as well as a Bais Medrash and a gym. The building was purchased for $6,000,000.
The school closed on the building last month.
They hope to begin moving classes there this September. TLS-MK.
What was the building used for until now?
TO: Curious
The building has been sitting empty.
I hope they make room for parking and room for the student buses to be loaded and unloaded. It was a warehouse and there is very little parking there now.
To Anon what’s your concern?? There is no school building in lakewood that comes to the size of this one. 13 acres, 218.000 sq ft is not large enough for you??
By turning a commercial property into a school the entire town looses on it’s taxable base.
When the building sits empty like many other ones are, the township is not losing nothing especialy when they tax homeowners to death! Sorry
To anon #2, I guess you never saw it,probably because you need a helicopter to see the whole property its so big, there are 2 tremendous parking lots, this building will be a shining example of what the cheder stands for.
Just because a building sits empty doesn’t mean the township is losing money on it. The owner of the building still has to pay taxes, right? The township can’t help it if the owner sells it to a school. However, there is right concern about parking and the safely loading and unloading of children onto buses on a site not originally developed for such an activity.
chill ales is goot
did anybody think they wouldnt get the “green light”?? cmon!
they can unload the buses in UPS across the street
TO NO.3
The building is big enough you can pack a lot of children in that huge building. My concern is getting the children to and from the building! And while we are at it I hope the have fire drills to teach the students and staff how to get out of that huge building in an emergency. Small children can get confused and get lost. If the parking lot is not big enough where are the children and staff going to meet when they have an emergency. Can you imagine all those children and staff running out of the building and the emergency equipment trying to get in?? I don’t know about anyone else but I an scared for the children in that building. And just for the record how many children do they plan to stuff in that building??
To #7
The company that was there went broke …. there was no owner so no taxes were paid. The back taxes are usually paid by the new owner as part of the purchase price.
the tax base in this town is disappearing at an alarming rate , who is going to support the towns expenses once its gone? if you think your taxes are high now just wait a few years it will be unaffordable !!
To #4
Regarding what you say that the entire town “looses” on “it’s” taxes, first of all, that is the way the law reads: non-profits don’t pay taxes. If you don’t like that, ask your Senator and Assemblyman to change the law.
Furthermore, no matter where the school relocates, they will not be paying real estate taxes. So who cares whether that is on this property or that?
To #11
Please don’t be ignorant. The school has been having regular fire drills as far back as I remember from my own days in the Cheder. When the electrical fire on the third floor happened (anyone else remember that? I was in sixth grade and it happened just around Mincha time) we evacuated the building in one minute flat (in the rain!). So please don’t make it sound like the school doesn’t prepare for emergencies, lo aleinu.
#12 anon sees it- why doesnt everyone else?
in regard to taxes all these thosands of kids live in houses with hundreds build every year so in regard to the tax base its only growing ….
look at the facts
TO Always Right:
This case you are NOT! The building empty how did they have a fire drill in it?? What I said is I hope they “PLAN” for the safety of the children, this building is HUGE!! It has 218000 sq ft how big was the other Cheder School?
Also if you keep building schools in the industrial park where are the businesses that may want to come here to go…. I know lets build a factory on the old ball park field in town. Please think before you post. With the way you think you should run for the Planning Board.
in regard to this quote” all these thosands of kids live in houses with hundreds build every year so in regard to the tax base its only growing ….
look at the facts
that alone does not support this town ,if it did we would not see our taxes rise every year with all the building that takes place in lakewood.
The added burden that more population over rides the money taken in by residential taxes !!!
Is “Vaser” Avenue supposed to be the same place as Vassar Avenue in the Industrial Park, or are there two different streets, “Vaser” and Vassar?
Converting a warehouse to a building used for schooling children is no easy matter. It is expensive and time-consuming. For example, warehouses generally have heating systems that will prevent freezing of stored goods, but they generally are not designed to provide for normal room temperature in cold weather other than in some small office areas. Warehouses also have less insulation than schools, and heating costs could be extremely high unless time and funds are directed toward insulation. The plumbing infrastructure would have been designed for a condition where the building would harbor far less workers than the number of staff and students used by a school. This projected September opening date sounds very optimistic if a go-ahead on the use was only recently obtained. I hope that the conversion is done correctly and completely, even if it means waiting beyond September to put the building into use as a school. One possible blessing: warehouses generally have excellent fire sprinkler systems in place.
I believe they only hope to be ready to house the 6th thru 8th grade for September in the new building. I don’t think they are saying that they will be ready for everyone.
I dont think an industrial area where 18-wheeler trucks are up and down the streets is safe for school kids and buses.
another school? how many private schools are now in this town?