Palm Beach Gardens City Council voted unanimously on September 24 to approve a new 23,500-square-foot multipurpose gymnasium on the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County's 15-acre campus near Hood Road and Interstate 95, clearing the way for a project years in the making for Arthur I. Meyer Jewish Preparatory School and the Mandel Jewish Community Center, which currently share a single gym. The facility, called the Exter Center, is named in honor of Diane and Neil Exter and carries an estimated price tag of about $27.5 million.
The approval was first reported as an exclusive by the Miami Herald, which detailed how the new building will serve double duty — hosting intramural sports for Meyer Prep students and summer camp programming for the Mandel JCC, while also opening its doors for community lectures, theater performances, and potentially synagogue events. Michael Hoffman, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County, said the project “represents an extraordinary investment in a vibrant Jewish future for the Palm Beaches and into Martin County,” per the same report. Palm Beach County is home to roughly 350,000 people living in Jewish households, according to the Herald's account.
Of the $27.5 million needed, $22 million has already been committed, and fundraising continues with additional naming opportunities still available, the Herald reported. The campaign fits into a much larger philanthropic push: the Federation's Campaign for the Future has raised more than $350 million for capital projects and endowments across Palm Beach and Martin counties, according to Meyer Jabara Hotels, which notes the campaign is chaired by hotel executive William A. Meyer and blends annual fundraising with multi-year pledges and permanent endowments.
A Campus Built on Major Gifts
The Exter Center isn't the only big-ticket addition planned for the Hood Road campus. Real estate developer Ken Endelson pledged $4 million in April to create the Endelson Sports Complex nearby, adding a regulation soccer field, a practice field, and spectator areas alongside the gymnasium project, according to Florida Weekly. That gift follows what remains one of the largest single donations in the Federation's history: a $10 million commitment from Palm Beach Gardens residents Stacey and Mark Levy in January 2023 to establish the Stacey & Mark Levy Center for Israel & Overseas, a gift that served as a foundational anchor for the broader Campaign for the Future, according to footage from Broadcast2World.
Leading the organization through this expansion is Samantha Klein, appointed chief executive officer of the Mandel JCC of the Palm Beaches in November 2025 after 13 years at the organization, including stints as chief operating officer and interim CEO. She now oversees a $16.5 million operation with more than 200 staff members spanning both the Palm Beach Gardens and Boynton Beach campuses, according to The Jewish Voice. The Boynton Beach site, a 16-acre campus on Jog Road with a preschool, aquatics center, soccer field, and gymnasium, is undergoing its own capital redesigns, per the Mandel JCC.
Traffic Worries on a Narrow Residential Street
Not everyone at the September 24 hearing was focused purely on the fundraising wins. Residents of the adjacent Alton community voiced support for the Exter Center overall, the Herald reported, but also raised concerns about the traffic the facility is expected to generate on Beckman Terrace, a city-owned street running through the residential neighborhood that is already frequently used by visitors to Meyer Prep and the Mandel JCC. Brian Seymour, chair of the Jewish Federation's board of directors, said federation officials plan to meet with residents to address those concerns, according to the same report.
The worry tracks with just how dense the surrounding neighborhood has become. Alton, developed by Kolter Homes, spans more than a square mile between Hood Road and Donald Ross Road and includes more than 2,000 single-family homes and townhouses, plus a town center and clubhouse, according to Mizner Residential Group. That density, wedged against a narrow residential cut-through like Beckman Terrace, helps explain why neighbors are watching the Exter Center's construction closely even as they back the project in principle.
A Campus With a Decade-Long Build-Out
The Hood Road campus has been expanding in phases since it first opened in August 2013, consolidating regional Jewish community operations before Arthur I. Meyer Jewish Preparatory School joined a year later, according to Black Tie Magazine's account of the campus's early history. Today Meyer Prep, founded in 1973, serves 198 students from junior kindergarten through eighth grade in a 68,000-square-foot facility on the 14-acre site, maintaining a 4-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio and a dual-language curriculum, per the Private School Review.
Infrastructure around the campus has also been catching up with growth. In July 2025, Palm Beach Gardens secured federal approval for a railroad quiet zone at six major crossings, including the Hood Road crossing near the Mandel JCC, following city-funded safety upgrades along the corridor — the result of nearly a decade of municipal planning to curb train horn noise in nearby neighborhoods, according to WLRN. The Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County governs communities from Boynton Beach north through Martin County, a jurisdiction distinct from the separate Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, which covers Boca Raton and Delray Beach — a territorial split that dates back to 1979, per the Berman Jewish DataBank.
