Capital Campaign

Background‍

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Considerable work has been done over the last several months to establish a better understanding of project costs for the capital improvements to the Temple Sholom Oak Street building and cemetery.

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As you know, our Oak Street synagogue, which has served our congregation for 38 years, requires updates related to the age of the building and the tremendous growth of our community. We have expanded from 350 families when the building was completed in 1988 to well over 900 families today. Our school has tripled in size, with staff and programming increasing to reflect this growth.

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We need to ensure the health of our building, and do some work to enable our physical space to better accommodate our congregation’s size and needs.
At the same time, there is a clear need for improved facilities for mourners at the cemetery, and to develop additional plot sites and memorials. Our cemetery site should reflect and support the sanctity of what brings us there, not only protecting mourners from the elements, but doing so in a manner that complements the landscape.

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Through public forums, surveys, and direct conversations over the last months, you have communicated your support for and concerns about proposed plans. Specific feedback regarding the design of the cemetery pavilion led us to enlist the services of a number of professionals including structural, electrical, civil, and mechanical consultants, as well as a construction manager to review and test our budget assumptions in the current construction market.

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Through this process we learned that a fully-enclosed building would cost considerably more than the original semi-enclosed design, to a prohibitive extent. The environmental impact of and maintenance costs for a fully-enclosed, climate-controlled facility that is used only a few times a month were also considered. As a result, we will move forward with an updated design for a semi-enclosed structure that both honours its purpose and is financially responsible. Our revised budget includes a $1M placeholder for the cemetery pavilion and we should have the confirmed design in the coming months.

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In addition to the development of the cemetery and pavilion, significant civil work must be undertaken in order to address the unique challenges inherent in servicing the property to ensure its sustainable operation over time.

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Over the past months, we have engaged specialists to continue planning work at both the synagogue and the cemetery, so that work can proceed uninterrupted should our congregation vote to proceed with the capital campaign. Coordination between the consultants and representatives of Temple Sholom to refine plans and determine costs has been critical to this project.

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For the Oak Street building, as you learned throughout the engagement process, we have identified a list of upgrades to better serve our congregation at services, social functions and meetings; and to best accommodate our Sunday Temple Sholom school, and our Montessori school tenant (which provides greatly needed rental revenue) for the next decade or more. These improvements can be done while we continue to use the building, with every effort to minimize disruption. This work will also be sequenced and prioritized to fit within the final budget, including identifying work that could be completed at a later date.

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Campaign Brochure

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Work to date points to a targeted budget for both the synagogue and the cemetery in the range of $7.5M, which includes line items, both for contingencies, and for interest charges (bridge financing will be necessary before all pledged gifts are received, as some gifts are pledged over 5 years). What we ultimately spend will be determined by the success of the campaign.

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The full scope of work will be finalized once we know what funds are available.

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Recent Steps‍

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• During the early stages of 2022–23, the designs and drawings were preliminary and conceptual, and our budget estimating was done by a professional quantity surveyor consultant. Since that time, several budgets were proposed and modified based on our evolving fundraising projections.
• We then advanced to produce design development reports from the engineering and architectural consultants, and engaged Westbourne Projects Ltd., a project management consultant, and Halse Martin Construction Ltd. as a contractor for both projects.
• In the past six months we have produced market-based cost estimates of all elements of the projects. This will now allow us to establish priorities and ultimately decide what to build and what to defer to a later date based on the reality of funds raised and the urgency of need for improvement, repair or maintenance.
• October 2023: Westbourne added the cemetery project to their scope of work; RJC Engineering was engaged to assess Oak Street capital repair requirements for the next 10 years, and consultants were asked to provide reports for a cost estimate by a quantity surveyor at the design development stage of the project.
• November 2023: The cemetery pavilion design was put on hold so we could look for cost savings or items that could be deferred.
• December 2023: Halse Martin was engaged to provide market costing and budgets for the project.
• January/February 2024: Discussions continued with all of the consultants to get a more detailed breakdown of the project, which included discussions with CREUS Civil Engineering to produce a budget for the cemetery civil works.
Current Status
Given all of this, here is where we stand today:
The Board of Directors in consultation with the Rabbis will be creating a hierarchy of priorities for projects in the Oak Street building, so that we will commit only to beginning projects for which we are certain there is budget to complete.
We have secured pledges of $5.3M from a small group of Temple Sholom donors. Once the campaign is formally approved to launch, we will approach additional donors to secure major gifts, with a goal of raising at least $1.5M from this group, and hopefully considerably more. As the campaign continues we will rely on our entire congregation to contribute what they can.
Given committed pledges and a measured, frugal approach to managing the project, we are comfortable projecting that we can raise sufficient funds to proceed with a campaign of $7.5M, knowing that we can scale back elements of the Oak Street renovation, if needed.