Groundbreaking Scheduled for New Chabad of Westport Jewish Center

WESTPORT, CT - Chabad of Westport Jewish Center will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for its new location, 79 Newtown Turnpike, on Sunday, May 22, at 11 a.m., officials announced.

The group purchased the site, formerly The Three Bears Restaurant, in 2013 for $1.6 million, and it will turn it into a synagogue (with a seating capacity for 300 people), classrooms for Hebrew School and for Jewish learning, event spaces, a Jewish Library and Teen Center, and a state of the art commercial teaching kitchen.

Plans call for renovating the existing 6,000-square-foot structure and building a 14,000-square-foot addition.

The Chabad of Westport Building Committee is overseen by Westport Resident Kevin Rakin, of HighCape Partners, Inc., and the committee includes Wilton Resident Peter Greenberg, who owns Able Construction, Inc., which is handling the construction; Westport resident Russ Greenberg of Altus Capital Partners; Kenny Gruder of Goldman, Gruder & Woods in Norwalk; and Westport Resident David Sussman, of Family Security Plan. Robert Storm Architecture, Inc. of Westport is the architect for the project.

Westport First Selectman Jim Marpe and Weston First Selectman Nina Daniel are scheduled to attend the groundbreaking ceremony on the 22nd, as are more than 200 residents of the communities the Chabad will serve, Westport, Weston, Wilton and Norwalk.

For more information about Chabad of Westport, visit the website at chabadofwestport.com

Photo: Rendering of the future Chabad of Westport Jewish Center. Photo credit: Chabad of Westport