CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WTVR)- The Children's Museum of Richmond (CMoR) is opening a new satellite location in Chesterfield. It's going in one of the county's fastest growing areas at the Winterpock Crossing Shopping Center at the corner of Hull Street and Winterpock Rd.
This is the second satellite branch for CMoR. In June 2010 the museum opened a second location in Short Pump. Museum officials said that location has s seen a lot of success, and was visited by 130,000 people in its first year.
CMoR was the first children's museum in the country to open a satellite to not only expand, but bring in additional revenue. With so many people in Chesterfield they're going to try it again.
The big empty space in the Winterpock Crossing Shopping Center is going to be filled with a kid's town square, an art studio, and all kinds of exhibits. A kids' train will go around part of the town square.
The space is so big that part of the back will be used as a workshop for creating new exhibits at all three CMoR locations.
The museum's president and CEO, Karen Coltrane, said kids will learn through play and hands-on experience and having a children's museum close to their homes will let families visit more often.
“Families want to use CMoR as they're doing other things in their day to lives”, said Ms. Coltrane, “so being kind of where the action is, I think , is helpful to us as far as getting people here regularly."
In this down economy, with so many businesses cutting back, Ms. Coltrane said the best way to create revenue for the museum is to expand. If the new Chesterfield location has the same success that the CMoR satellite in Short Pump is having, it will be more than the museum that benefits.
Foot traffic from tens of thousands of kids and their families is helping neighboring businesses in Henrico County’s West Broad Village. The businesses along the busy and growing Hull Street corridor hope this satellite museum does the same when it opens in June.
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