The Northeast Spa & Pool Association (NESPA) has created a new foundation, The NESPA Foundation for Education and Professionalism, to help defray the costs of its new headquarters building and the extensive educational programming planned for the facility.

“After 25 years of dreaming and planning, NESPA is proud to announce the purchase and refurbishing of our new administrative headquarters and technical training facility in Hamilton, New Jersey,” said Steven Metz, President, NESPA. “This new facility, which will open in May 2008, will allow us to offer to you, our member, a first-rate training facility with state-of-the-art swimming pool/spa and hot tub hands-on vessels, a 25-person work lab with movable work benches, and two separate classroom facilities for both small and large groups.”

Metz continued: “We are offering you, our members, the opportunity to become an integral part of this project. There are numerous ways to contribute, from as low as $200 for a paving brick to be permanently placed in the newly landscaped entrance walkway to the building, to $5,000 to purchase one of the work benches in the new lab facility, and many other opportunities in between.”

The new Foundation is a 501(c)(3) subsidiary that allows contributors to take tax deductions. NESPA mailed members a complete packet of information on the new Foundation. If you have questions, do not hesitate to call NESPA at 732-972-9111.

Lawrence Caniglia, JD, CAE, Executive Director of NESPA, said that the new NESPA building is in a centrally located area of New Jersey, right off of Route 130, minutes from Exit 7A on The New Jersey Turnpike. This is a convenient location for NESPA’s far-flung region made up of chapters in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania.

The building itself is 13,800 square feet and NESPA will use 10,000 square feet of it right now. “We have an existing tenant who will use 3,800 square feet over the term of his lease, which runs for the next few years under the existing terms,” noted Caniglia. “Within the 10,000 square feet we are using, we are creating 6,000 square feet of classroom and hands-on training. The hands-on training areas are about 4,000 square feet and the classroom space is about 2,000 square feet.” Remaining space will be built out as office space for NESPA staff.