Non-Profit Plans Special-Needs Facility in Livingston

A Livingston non-profit last week announced plans to construct a multi-million dollar 45,000-square-foot facility in the township to serve young people with special needs, according to a Sunday NJ.com report.

The $13-million state-of-the LifeTown art complex is scheduled to break ground this spring, according to Friendship Circle Executive Director Rabbi Zalman Grosbaum, and will boast interactive features like a pharmacy, deli, theater, medical clinic, bowling alley, traffic lights and crosswalks, the report said.

LifeTown will have the potential to serve 30,000 physically and developmentally disabled children in New Jersey each year, Grossbaum said.

The complex will include amenities like a cooking center and space for art, water and tactile therapy as well as a gym, parent lounge and library and outdoor rubberized fields.

Designed by the architecture firm Rotwein and Blake Associates, the Livingston facility on Microlab Road will occupy a building formerly used for light manufacturing and office space, Grossbaum said. The revamped building will also serve as the new headquarters for Friendship Circle.