By Mira Beinart and Irit Skulnik
Maryland Hillel broke ground on a new 39,105-square-foot facility in College Park Sunday, marking the conclusion of a nearly decade-long project.
Hillel connects Jewish students at the University of Maryland with kosher dining, religious services, community events, educational opportunities and student organizations. The current 16,000-square-foot Hillel building at 7612 Mowatt Lane can no longer meet the campus organization’s needs, according to Shawn Laing, Hillel’s finance and operations director.
The new facility at 7505 Yale Ave. will include multipurpose rooms, a professional-grade rehearsal space and huddle rooms as well as a lounge, game room, learning center and cafe with outdoor seating. Additionally, the building will house a larger and more efficient kitchen to offer a variety of kosher dining options, the website said.
“We’re going to have plenty of space, plenty of room to do anything we want to do, anything students want to do. It’s just going to be nice and new and fresh,” Laing said.
More than 200 people gathered for the building’s groundbreaking ceremony, which featured speeches from university administrators, Hillel leadership and student members.
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University president Darryll Pines expressed his excitement at the groundbreaking. Hillel not only helps Jewish students find community, but ensures they “reach their full potential,” he said in his speech Sunday.
The new building will be constructed on a university-owned parking lot that Hillel acquired in a land swap with the university, according to county records. The site was home to Hillel’s first building when it opened on campus in 1939, Laing said.
“The Hillel is coming back home to where it all started, right here, in the center of College Park.” Pines said in his speech Sunday.
Leslie Montroll, a class of 1972 alum, recalled attending Hillel events when the organization was on Yale Avenue. She is excited for Hillel to return to its original neighborhood.
“Hillel meant the world to me when I went to school here,” Montroll, a College Park resident, told The Diamondback at Sunday’s groundbreaking.
The project has been in the works for nearly a decade, according to its website.
The Prince George’s County planning board approved the building’s first site plan in 2018, according to county records. But the project halted during the COVID-19 pandemic, Laing said.
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Hillel resumed the project in summer 2021 and revamped the design, Laing said. The organization utilized focus groups of alumni, students and board members to collaborate on the building’s design, he added.
“We didn’t want to rush it,” Laing said. “We wanted to make sure that we were building what everyone wanted, what worked the best for the community.”
The county’s planning board approved Hillel’s new site plan in January, which enabled the organization to apply for required permits, according to county records.
Because the new building is in College Park’s historic Old Town neighborhood, Hillel’s site plan faced scrutiny from the Old Town College Park Historic District Local Advisory Committee. In a meeting last October, the committee determined that the plan didn’t fully align with the neighborhood’s historic aesthetic, The Diamondback previously reported.
But the Prince George’s County Historic Preservation Commission in November recommended Hillel’s plan for the planning board’s approval. The commission noted that the facade was consistent with guidance for new construction, which encourages “compatible modern designs,” county records stated.
Construction is expected to take 14 months and the new building could open as soon as next fall, Laing said.
