‘What About The Wallace Deck?’

With Kidzu Children’s Museum contemplating a move to Carrboro, some in Chapel Hill are left wondering, ‘What about the Wallace deck?”

Back in 2009, the Chapel Hill Town Council approved a plan to let Kidzu build a 15,000 square foot, multi-story museum atop one half of the Wallace parking deck on East Rosemary Street. The town agreed to lease the site to the museum for 99 years at a cost of $99.

Kidzu Executive Director Pam Wall says that’s still a viable option.

“Our focus has not changed from Wallace Plaza, but when this other option came up that would allow us to be more collaborative with another arts organization and be more resourceful with raising funds, we really needed to consider that option for Kidzu,” says Wall.

The museum has recently floated the idea of partnering with the ArtsCenter to co-locate in a new space in Carrboro. With the two nonprofits splitting the cost with the Town, that plan would cost Kidzu far less than the $11 million dollar price tag to build on the Wallace Deck.

“Certainly when you consider a building option that you will be the only occupant, you’re going to have raise more money than if you are partnering with another one or two other arts organizations, and/or a public funding source as well, to make that building happen,” says Wall.

But the Carrboro Arts and Innovation Center idea is still in its earliest stages, and to make it happen the Town of Carrboro would need to subsidize the project, a concept not all town leaders have embraced.

Meanwhile, Chapel Hill town officials are wondering what to do about a leak in the roof at the Wallace parking deck that will cost the town an estimated $1 million to fix.

The town is still making payments on the 22-year-old parking deck. Last week, Business Management Director Ken Pennoyer warned elected leaders they need to ensure that the property doesn’t lose value before it’s paid for in full.

“The financing on that deck goes out to 2024,” said Pennoyer. “We probably need the most permanent solution available in order to maintain the life of that deck as long as possible.”

He said if Kidzu were to start construction in the near future, that could save the town up to half a million.

“If something is built on top of the deck, it changes the scope of the water infiltration remedy and it actually reduces the costs since their building will be covering part of the roof- up to half it,” said Pennoyer. “So if we knew tomorrow that that building would get build in the next year or two, we could reduce the amount of money that we needed to fix the roof. However, at a certain point we actually need to move forward with that fix because time is not on our side.”

But it’s not likely anything will get built on the Wallace deck in the immediate future. Kidzu is preparing to open an expanded site in University Mall in February and Wall says she expects to be there for at least three years. After that, it’s not exactly clear where the popular children’s museum will find a permanent home.