County Board Approves Lease for Children’s Museum

After more than a decade of work and waiting, the Westchester Children’s Museum is now one step closer to moving in to the North Bathhouse at Playland Amusement Park.

The Board of Acquisition and Contract unanimously approved a lease between the county and the museum that will help the museum open its doors within two years, according to its Executive Director Tracy Kay.    

“This is great, this is a big step or us and we are really anxious to move forward from here,” Kay said.

Under the terms of the lease, the museum recognizes it will operate under the management umbrella of Sustainable Playland Inc, the group Astorino has selected to manage the park, although it will be a separate vendor, and that it will cooperate with SPI as it seeks approvals of its Playland Improvement Plan.

The original lease had been written under the assumption the county would run the park, as it does now, but because of the SPI plan it had to be rewritten to ensure the museum understands it may be operating under a different management system, Kay said. However, SPI’s plan has still not been approved by the Board of Legislators and if they do not approve it by October the plan could fall through. Either way, the museum will be able to operate and move forward.

Now, the museum will continue fundraising efforts in hopes to raise the $10 million needed in order to open the full museum by summer 2015, Kay said. While they fundraise, they will continue to run their Museum Wihtout Walls and other educational programs. The plan is to start construction by next summer and open a year after that. Since its inception 13 years ago, the museum raised $9 million which have helped them stay afloat and paid for all design costs.

"We took a leap of faith and built out designs so we could be ready in a timely fashion for when lease was ready," Kay said. All design costs are behind them so they can now select a contractor to move forward with the work once the County Department of Public Works approves the final plan. 

The lease requires the organization to spend a minimum of about $7 million to make improvements to the building, which is a 1928 bathhouse, and bring it up to code for public occupancy. Then they need about $3 million to build the exhibits, museum features and cover opening operation costs, Kay said.

Two years ago, the County Board of Legislators approved about $8 million in funds to restore the building. Once the those restorations were complete, the lawmakers approved a 10-year lease for the museum to occupy 21,390 square feet of the former men’s bathhouse and spend about $6.5 million in renovations in exchange for a yearly rent of one dollar. County Legislator Rob Astorino vetoed the lease in 2011, but legislators overrode his vote. However, the administration did not recognize the lease because it did not have Astorino’s signature.

The lease agreed upon today is also a ten-year lease with similar conditions, will have all necessary signatures and the museum will finally move forward with its plans.

“I’m hopeful that the fundraising gods and goddesses will be with us,” Kay said, adding that they already have some substantial pledges for amounts he would rather not disclose at this time.

“There have been a number of people waiting with us to get to this step- some because it is a children’s museum, but some also because it is an adaptive reuse of a national historic landmark and they want to make sure it is built the way it should be built.”

The next step will be a formal signing of various agreements between the county, the museum and SPI, which will be scheduled for later this month.