Nonprofit Looking For Buyer Or Tenant For 112,000-Square-Foot Building
By Tina Traster
Nonprofits offering a raft of services to those in need are thinking more strategically when it comes to real estate decisions. From build-outs to leasing, nonprofits are using a more integrative approach to offer clients services that are more consolidated and complementary.
Take for example Camp Venture, which is seeking a collaborative partnership for its vacant space at its Sparkill Campus on Route 340 in Orangetown, previously occupied by Long Island University. The nonprofit is hoping to attract a “mission-congruent” tenant for nearly 55,000-square-feet of its 112,000-square-foot, mid-century, three-story building on the 12-acre campus. Alternatively, the entity is also entertaining offers from buyers but would like to remain a tenant.
Camp Venture, celebrating its 50th anniversary, uses the ground floor for its day programs for the disabled and its foundation. A mission-congruent partner would likely be another nonprofit or educational institution that coincides with the needs of Camp Venture’s population. The Sparkill site offers day-time programs that provide developmentally challenged individuals with programs aimed at building social skills. Programs include horticulture, art therapy, horseback riding, volunteering and more.
Paul Adler, who is marketing the property for Rand Commercial, says “This is a wonderful setting for an educational building to be used for workforce development.”
Built in the 1960s and originally used to house a girls’ Catholic school, the campus is located in a regional corridor that houses educational institutions including St. Thomas Aquinas College and Dominican College.
Camp Venture, which provides support for people with disabilities, was founded in 1969 as a summer camp. The organization has been on the forefront of building group homes and fostering independence for people with mental illness and developmental disabilities.
Countywide, nonprofits are overwhelmed by growing demand. They not only need more space; they are pressed to coordinate their functions more strategically so populations they cater to have better access to the services they need. Having collaborative services side-by-side is the way nonprofits are thinking anew about community engagement.
Jawonio’s $18 million transformation project is not simply about better facilities for the nonprofit that’s been serving the special needs population for 70 years. The renovation incorporates a strategically complex building and facility-utilization plan to make the organization more efficient in the way it delivers services. In thinking about how the building will be designed to function, two considerations were on the table, Jawonio told RCBJ. First and foremost, the facility will provide a greatly improved logistical flow of consolidated services under one roof in a building that’s designed with 21st-century technology. Secondarily, the organization is set to monetize some of its space, bolstering the nonprofit’s bottom line.
The $22 million Montefiore Nyack Hospital is far from just a physical expansion. The new and renovated structures are being designed to create a tiered level of improved medical treatment that fosters preemptive intervention and non-emergency care to reduce emergency room visits. Montefiore Nyack Hospital, a member of Montefiore Health System and the Montefiore Hudson Valley Collaborative, is building a two-story, 16,300-square-feet addition, which will double the size of the emergency department, and add a Medical Village. The hospital lobby and adjacent corridors will also be renovated.
The Medical Village will house a 7,800 square foot multi-specialty outpatient service center to include primary and specialty care providers and community-based support services from local service organizations. A patient navigation program will integrate inpatients and outpatients with community-based services and provide transition support in the least restrictive environment for care. The center will also offer non-emergency transportation to and from appointments with providers and organizations.
Rand recently gave Rockland County government officials a tour of the Camp Venture campus. Adler says Camp Venture is open to a sale/lease back transaction, which would keep Camp Venture in place without the burden of ownership. The building, which has “great bones,” is conveniently located between Routes 303 and 9W. “It has a rural setting with a pond and is expandable,” said Adler. “There’s a great deal of interest in the property.”