gchildress@heraldsun.com; 918-1046
Chapel Hill -- Officials with Kidzu Children's Museum were excited Wednesday after the Town Council approved a 99-year lease that paved the way for a major museum expansion atop the Wallace Parking Deck.
"I'm thrilled," said Catherine Maris, just moments after the council unanimously approved the lease.
A grand opening for the new $6 million museum, which could total 15,000 square feet, is still several years away, but Kidzu hopes to begin construction in about three years, with a completion date coming sometime in 2014.
Kidzu will pay the town $1 a year to lease the top of the parking deck.
Jonathan Mills, chairman of the museum's board of directors, said the new museum will become a landmark that town residents will want to show off to visitors.
"Chapel Hill is an extraordinary town that is defined by having unique institutions that have great character," Mills said. "The Varsity Theater is a good example. That's what we want to become."
Mills said having a lease in the museum's back pocket will make fundraising for the new building a lot easier.
Kidzu currently occupies a 2,700-square-foot facility at 105 Franklin St. In addition to a new 15,000-square-foot building, the museum will also control 5,000 square feet of outdoor space.
The expansion will allow the museum to greatly increase the number of visitors it can accommodate at one time from about 100 to several hundred. Mills said there is sometimes a wait list for children to get into the museum to enjoy an exhibit.
"A children's museum should not have a wait list," Mills said. "We're glad that the days of a wait list are coming to an end."
Council member Laurin Easthom said the museum will be a big plus for Chapel Hill in terms of education and economics.
"It's going to be such a welcome addition to downtown and create another destination for residents and visitors with lots of economic spillover from shopping and eating in restaurants," Easthom said.
