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Children's museum joins outlet center

By Tom Kirwan

MASSAPONAX, Va. -- What may be the nation's first children's museum to open in an outlet center is in the works here in northern Virginia.

It wasn't originally planned that way, however.

Back in the late 1980s, when Steve Jones helped design Massaponax Factory Outlet Center, having an 18,000-square-foot second level in the middle of the 105,000-square-foot strip center seemed like a good idea. The plan was to consolidate public restrooms, food service and a handful of in-line tenants into the enclosed space at the top of the center's inverted-U design, said Mr. Jones, vice president of the W.J. Vakos Management Co., the project's locally based developer.

But things didn't go as planned for the center, which opened in 1990 near Fredericksburg, Va., at exit 126 of Interstate 95.

"It [the second-floor level] never generated enough walk-by traffic and has been sitting there empty," Mr. Jones said. "Today, we've got one small sandwich shop up there. We learned the hard way that second-story retail doesn't work."

After years of unsuccessfully trying to entice tenants to the space, Mr. Jones has given up on leasing it to national or local outlet retailers. Instead, his company is partnering with a local organization that has been looking for a home for a planned children's museum.

Mr. Jones concedes that bringing The Wonder Factory, envisioned as a 12,000-square-foot kids' museum with six themed areas and about a dozen exhibits, is a tad risky. But he said he has a gut feeling the course is the right one.

"We're convinced it's the right use for the space and good for the community," he said. "We're not doing this for practice: We do think it's going to be a traffic generator."

The Association of Youth Museums (AYM), based in Washington, D.C., said average annual attendance at children's museums nationally is running at about 152,000 people. That's nearly 50% more than two years ago.

Eighteen children's museums -- or nearly 12% of the 155 such facilities operated by association members -- are housed in shopping projects, up from 10.4% in 1996.

According to research by The Wonder Factory, a group that is seeking nonprofit status from the IRS, annual attendance at four children's museums within a 90-minute drive of the Fredericksburg outlet center ranges from 200,000 in Portsmouth, Va., and 175,000 in Washington, D.C., to 53,800 in Richmond, Va., and 44,000 in Charlottesville, Va.

The Wonder Factory expects to have first-year attendance of about 70,000. The museum's leadership said that number is high compared to similar museums in the region, but realistic given the planned museum's interstate location and its close existing relationship with area schools. The facility's organizers expect it to be a top field-trip destination. In addition to its exhibits, the museum will have a gift shop but no restaurant, although the sandwich shop is remaining next door.

"Children's museums are a destination in themselves, attracting 20 million visitors a year," said Valerie Borden, member services coordinator for AYM.

"They are tourist attractions for out-of-town visitors and repeat destinations for in-town residents. Children's museums have a pull, whether they are in a mall, downtown or some other location."

The need for a children's museum has been obvious for years in Fredericksburg, said Mr. Jones. "Here in Spotsylvania County, we've been building one new school a year for the past few years," he said. "We've become a bedroom community to the northern Virginia area and D.C., and new residents are frustrated because they are used to having these facilities a mile away.

"Our stores' ZIP-code studies show that a majority of their customers are visitors coming in off the interstate," Mr. Jones continued. "We're trying to do more and more to bring locals to our center, to make it more of a local destination, to get locals to think of this as the place to go for more than special purposes, like Christmas and back-to-school. With the children's museum, we're trying to generate foot traffic many times of the year."

Under the lease agreement signed in July '97, Massaponax Factory Outlet Center will pay for internal demolition of most of the existing second-floor space and provide a "vanilla" box, at a cost of something under $120,000, plus provide free rent through construction.

"We're getting decent rent; after concessions to help them get going, it's a $10 deal," said Mr. Jones, referring to the per-square-foot base rent per year, plus marketing and CAM charges of $4.75 per-square-foot. By comparison, median U.S. outlet-center base rents were $12.50 per square foot in 1996, according to ICSC, while marketing and CAM charges averaged $5.37 per square foot.

With a fall '98 opening planned, demolition work started in March, a few weeks before The Wonder Factory was set to gear up for its April 4 launch of a $500,000 fund-raising effort. The money will be used to retrofit the space, build exhibits and hire a full-time staff of about a half-dozen people, although the facility also will rely heavily on volunteers.

Heading The Wonder Factory is Richard Barnick, president of the planned museum's organizing committee. Messrs. Barnick and Jones say their wives, Florence Roe Barnick and Nancy Jones, initially got them interested in bringing a children's museum to Fredericksburg, and that eventually led to the idea of putting the facility in the outlet center. (Both women continue to serve on the museum's organizing committee.)

For more than two years, Mr. Barnick has put his career as a retail buildout contractor on hold to get the project off the ground. He said support from the local community as well as the popularity of a traveling exhibit he built -- called Construction Zone, it explores the principles of simple machines -- have convinced him of the need for a children's museum.

"This is something this area really needs, for the children and the educational system," said Mr. Barnick, who said the planned facility's 12 or so exhibits will be geared toward topics students study in class. He sees the museum as a "I've been putting more time on this than I ever did as a contractor."

"We can't miss with this because of its visibility," said Mr. Barnick, referring to plans for The Wonder Factory's site at the center, as well as its exterior signage, which will front I-95. "We couldn't ask for a better location."

For his part, developer Jones stresses his company's decision as a "way to give back to the community," but sees it as the correct business decision, too.

"It's not a Discovery Zone," Mr. Jones said. "It's not a big playground, but an actual educational facility, one that will be a big traffic generator. We hope parents will go right from there to buy apparel and shoes for their kids."