Lakewood Ranch Chabad moves into permanent home

LAKEWOOD RANCH — For families of Chabad of Bradenton and Lakewood Ranch, there truly is no place like home.

After changing locations six times in just seven years, Chabad held a grand opening March 18 for its new 5-acre campus off Lorraine Road.

“Now it’s home; now it’s ours,” Rabbi Mendy Bukiet said. “Anything we want, we can do, because it’s our home now. We don’t have to be worried about what the future holds.”

The new property includes a renovated 2,600-square-foot house with worship, classroom and office space, as well as a kosher kitchen, a storage shed, parking and plenty of land on which to grow or host events.

“This property ultimately suited our needs,” Bukiet said. “This place is perfect for us. The land is good. The area is good for the future. The opportunity is great.

“There’s so much, I could talk about it for hours,” he said, smiling. “It really is to be able to give everybody from the community — all dimensions — to partake and enjoy the aspects of Judaism. We’re looking forward to using every inch of space.”

Formed in 2004 by Bukiet and his wife, Chanie, Chabad of Bradenton and Lakewood Ranch already offers adult and youth Jewish education classes, holiday enrichment programs and services to families through counseling, hospital and prison visitations and more.

Bukiet and an advisory team began looking for a permanent facility about two years ago.

The former residential property Chabad purchased in January 2011 proved to be the perfect fit.
Permitting and renovations proved both challenging and time-consuming, but the process has been rewarding, Bukiet said.

“It was a fun experience,” Bukiet said. “It took 10 months to put this dream together.”

The Bukiets still have even bigger dreams for a full-scale Jewish community center in mind, and ultimately hope to have space for weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs, a Jewish library and a center for children’s after-school programs.

“The vision is to have anything a Jewish person might want to have,” Bukiet said. “From birth to death, it should be here.”

But for now, the Bukiets are thrilled to have the first part of their dream fulfilled and grateful for the community support shown to Chabad along the way.

“A lot of people helped us to make this happen,” Mendy Bukiet said. “Chanie and I could not have done this alone.

“It’s very exciting,” he said. “We’re hoping the community will enjoy (our new home) and really take advantage of us being here permanently. It’s more looking ahead already.”

Chabad began holding services in its new facility earlier this month.

For information on Chabad, visit www.chabadofbradenton.com.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].

HOME SWEET HOME
Chabad has had several East County homes over the last several years including at the Bukiet’s home, Braden River Middle School, the Bank of America building, First Priority Bank and in Lane I Plaza.

The new facility is located at 5712 Lorraine Road in Lakewood Ranch.