By Neil Johnson njohnson@gazettextra.com October 4, 2021

 

JANESVILLE

While the startup Children’s Museum of Rock County is still putting together a business plan and a capital campaign to raise funds for a future $5 million attraction in Janesville, the group is reiterating its interest in a downtown bank property as the “preferred” location for the museum.

Children’s Museum of Rock County board member John Westphal said he and other board members involved in finding a home for a 20,000-square-foot children’s museum have told private owners of the former First National Bank—and developers who are eyeing the historic bank property at 100 W. Milwaukee St.—that the museum group considers the circa-1913 property as the best site in Janesville for a children’s museum.

Westphal told The Gazette that he has laid out the children’s museum’s tentative plans and its interest in the former First National building as the museum’s future location—although he said his group also is eyeing a pair of city-owned parcels along the Rock River just north of the Hedberg Public Library.

The Forward Foundation, the charitable arm of Forward Janesville, bought the former First National Bank building last year after former owner Blackhawk Community Credit Union put the property on the market.

The credit union had begun renovations to the building to transform it into a heritage museum to honor General Motors workers but temporarily shelved that project last year. The credit union then sold off the First National building during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Forward Foundation has said it is doing its own study to determine the possible best re-uses of the former bank. The children’s museum group is just one stakeholder who has expressed interest in the building.

Westphal said his group hasn’t yet raised the capital it would need to buy land or a building to house and launch its proposed children’s museum. But he said the group considers the riverfront site near the Hedberg Library a “plan B” location if the children’s museum is unable to secure the former First National building as its future location.

Westphal said discussions over the two sites are still tentative, but the children’s museum board has been public over the past year about wanting the former First National because of the building’s size and its central downtown location.

City of Janesville officials last week said the city could opt to spend some of its $4 million allocation of federal COVID-19 rescue funding the city Is being awarded on the children’s museum project and a separate sports complex.
 
The Children’s Museum of Rock County announced in a Facebook post over the weekend that it has “narrowed options” on potential locations to the former bank on West Milwaukee Street and city-owned riverfront lots near the library.

“Now that we have two potential sites, we’ll be working with (children’s museum consulting firm) ConsultEcon to complete a business plan that will provide us with a solid operating plan and in-depth forward-looking financials to make sure the Museum is a sustainable enterprise,” the group wrote in a Facebook post over the weekend.

“Once the business plan is complete and the final site selected, we will begin the capital campaign, with a goal to raise upwards of $5 million. So, get ready!”

Claire Gray, president of the children’s museum board, said the museum’s business plan likely will be completed later this fall, and the group might launch major fundraising efforts sometime in 2021.

The children’s museum is going public over its continued search for a museum home as a separate group of stakeholders, the city of Janesville and Uptown Janesville owners RockStep Capital, are beginning to hammer out a possible deal to bring a $30 million indoor sports complex to the former Sears space at Uptown Janesville, the city’s main enclosed shopping mall.

The children’s museum earlier had secured an initial “incubator” site in a 4,000-square-foot storefront in Uptown Janesville’s concourse, but the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the museum’s fundraising efforts and startup plans.

The museum board in the recent Facebook post indicated that it will need more space than the 4,000 square feet Uptown Janesville was willing to donate as a children’s museum incubator.

Gray said the children’s museum continues to do smaller-scale fundraising to pay for consultant work and to offset youth learning and play kits that the group gives away at public events it hosts.

On Friday, the group plans to give away fall-themed science play kits at the Apple Hut in Beloit.