PARAMUS – The old Barnes & Noble site on Route 17 opened a new chapter Tuesday. New Concepts for Living, a nonprofit serving adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, cut the ribbon on its state-of-the-art Achievement Center about 15 months after the bookstore closed after 30 years.
With staff, customers, family members and local and state officials there to celebrate, New Concepts inaugurated the 81,000-square-foot facility, which is approximately eight times the size of its former home in Rochelle Park. The building has dedicated space for life skills training, recreation programs, sensory rooms, health and wellness screenings, and physical, occupational, behavioral and speech therapy.
CEO Steve Setteducati said the group can now expand services to “many more adults in our state.” The nonprofit plans to renovate the Rochelle Park location and continue serving the communities there.
“Each participant will not only be well cared for, but also encouraged to reach his or her greatest potential,” Setteducati said.
For a retail chain, the old Barnes & Noble had a devoted following. Fans celebrated when it reopened on Black Friday in a new location, just up the highway at 634 Route 17 North, near the Fashion Center.
The history was recorded at the former location on Tuesday.
“You may not realize it, but this 8,000-square-foot building once housed a Barnes & Noble,” Dan Mihalinec, director of facilities for New Concepts, told a packed “town hall” at the new center. The auditorium was filled with photos of prominent Paramus landmarks, including Van Saun County Park and local shopping centers.
“Over the past year it has undergone a complete transformation,” Milhanec said of the site.
New Concepts offers community housing, day programs, and therapeutic and behavioral services for adults 21 and older. Individuals in the day programs and group homes include people with autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, brain injuries, fetal alcohol syndrome and rare conditions such as Williams, Prader-Willi and Rett syndromes.
The Achievement Center will host three different programs for people with low support needs, higher needs and those who are medically vulnerable, Setteducati said. These three groups will have special parts of the building, something that was not possible on the smaller site of Rochelle Park.
With support from the New Jersey Division of Developmental Disabilities, the nonprofit will provide job training and physical, occupational and speech therapy. “These offerings make this facility one of the largest and most comprehensive programs” in the field for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Setteducati said.
With eight times the space, the group expects to more than triple the number of people it serves in the first year alone. In Rochelle Park, the nonprofit was able to serve a total of about 80 people. There is already a waiting list of 300 people to participate in the new Paramus facility.
Kim Catalfamo, the mother of a 26-year-old adult with cerebral palsy and other conditions, attended the ribbon cutting. She said New Concepts staff has always met her son Joey’s needs since he started using the group’s programs in August.
“From day one of Joey’s cerebral palsy diagnosis, I knew that the more he is exposed to life, [the more] his life will be his own and a happily fulfilled life,” Catalfamo said. “When I discovered New Concept for Living, I had a gut feeling that they too had the same goal and vision.”
Laura and Roy Voorhees of Dumont have also found the New Concepts for Living programs to be a blessing for their 28-year-old daughter Savannah, who is part of the medically vulnerable population. They started taking her to a day program at the Rochelle Park location in January and found the staff to be wonderful to work with and attentive to Savannah’s needs.
In one case, a staff member noticed that Savannah was regularly putting her hands in her mouth and later recommended the family a toy that might help with the problem, Laura Voorhees said. Behaviorists were able to pick up things about Savannah that other daycare centers had not noticed before.
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The couple grew to trust the staff and also decided to take their daughter to a New Concepts adult group home in Old Tappan.
Laura Voorhees was happy to hear that the new Paramus space would allow for on-site therapies and that there is a space specifically for medically vulnerable people like her daughter. Although Savannah cannot communicate with them verbally, her parents can see that she had a good time while attending the day program and living in the group home.
“We’re so happy that she transitioned well and she’s happy, so we’re happy,” Laura said.
Stephanie Noda is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the top news from your local community, subscribe or activate your digital account today.
E-mail: noda@northjersey.com
Twitter: @snoda11
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Closed Barnes & Noble in Paramus NJ, nonprofit begins new chapter
