Chabad Lubavitch on the move
Religious organization plans to relocate to former Carmel Academy site
GREENWICH — Big changes are coming to Chabad Lubavitch of Greenwich, as the cultural, religious and educational organization plans for a major relocation from central Greenwich to a historic property on Lake Avenue.
The organization, which runs preschool programs for youngsters and adult learning classes as well as Jewish religious services, is selling its two buildings on Mason Street and Lincoln Avenue.
It will be moving its operations to the campus of the former Carmel Academy at 270 Lake Ave. An independent Jewish day school, Carmel
Academy closed its doors a year ago at the end of the school year. Many of its students transferred to the Leffell School in Westchester County, N.Y., which is dedicated to Jewish religious education.
Rabbi Yossi Deren of Chabad Greenwich said the relocation was a positive step for the organization and the larger community.
“This is a good thing for the community,” Deren said. “Chabad is a community organization; we’re here to serve the families and individuals of the beautiful community of Greenwich. To have this kind of facility allows us to provide better services, and that’s what it’s all about.”
Chabad has used the Carmel site for Camp Gan, a summer camp, since 2000, and it has transferred its preschool operations to the site already. The school has about 54 youngsters currently enrolled, including a kindergarten class.
The Japanese School of New York also operates at the Lake Avenue site and will continue to do so, Deren said.
The price of the Carmel site is set at $20 million, and a fundraising program will commence to raise funds. The proceeds of the sale of the two properties downtown will go toward the acquisition of the Lake Avenue property, he said.
The organization’s Mason Street site has been listed for sale at $3.6 million, and an adjacent property on Lincoln Avenue is listed for $2.5 million, according to the organization.
When Carmel Academy announced its closure a year ago, Head of School Nora Anderson said in a statement: “Given the current realities of finances and enrollment, we believe that the very best way to ensure a continued, topquality educational experience for our students is to seek the expanded opportunities and economic efficiencies that come with joining a larger, missionaligned institution.”
Carmel Academy, previously known as Westchester Fairfield Hebrew Academy, was founded in 1998 in Port Chester, N.Y. It moved to Temple Sholom two years after its founding and remained there until 2006, when the school purchased the 17-acre campus on Lake Avenue.
Deren said the site has a long heritage, and his organization “was very mindful of that.” The campus was once the home of Rosemary Hall, an all-girls private school that operated in Greenwich from the early 1900s until 1971, when it merged with a boys school to become Choate-Rosemary Hall in Wallingford.
“We’re going to be mindful of two very important factors: maintaining the tranquility of the neighborhood. And respecting the historic nature of this gem of property. Chabad sees itself as a stewards of this land and its buildings,” Deren said.
Chabad had earlier sought to move into the historic Greenwich Armory on Mason Street in 2019, but those plans failed to advance amid concerns about parking and conditions imposed by the town’s Planning and Zoning. Commission.
In early 2019, Chabad Lubavitch of Greenwich received the approval to build a new synagogue and preschool at 226 and 230 Mason St. as well as at 16 Havemeyer Place. But it also required Chabad to reduce the size of the new building and preserve the entire structure of the historic Greenwich Armory, instead of part of it as was proposed.
Originally, the organization had proposed a 20,913-squarefoot building. But with the conditions, it could have built only a 14,000-square-foot building so it abandoned those plans.