| By Big Radio News Staff |
The Children’s Museum of Rock County’s organizers say there’s a strategy in naming a construction firm before they have all the cash in hand for the $10 million project.
On Wednesday afternoon, president of the planned nonprofit children’s museum’s board of directors John Westphal stood next to Jeannie Cullen-Schultz, operator of local contractor JP Cullen, under the massive, arched ceiling at the former First National Bank building at 100 W. Milwaukee St. in downtown Janesville.
There, they announced the planned transformation of the building into a children’s museum would come together as an experienced local builder, JP Cullen, keeps a watchful eye over the museum’s designs, costs and project timelines.
Westphal says enlisting and announcing JP Cullen as the project’s presumptive contractor now means the children’s museum can hash out designs and building costs all at once as it tries to reach a private fundraising goal for the project of at least $10 million.
Westphal says it would be beneficial to the project to make sure final design concepts, costs and timelines for the museum stay in line with the planned museum’s finances.
Right now, the group has $8.37 million raised in donor commitments that Westphal says would roll out over a five-year span. But the children’s museum hopes to reach critical mass with both private funding and finalized designs early in 2025.
Children’s Museum of Rock County officials have repeatedly said they don’t want to pull the trigger on building out the museum before the project funding is fully in hand.
Meanwhile, the group is now working with local architect Angus-Young and a Memphis, Tennessee-based museum design firm on designs — some of which the group showed off at the former First National Bank on Wednesday.
Westphal laid out some plans unique to the children’s museum, including a living, moving mini-Rock River that kids can play and learn in, a maker-space room where kids can build structures and machines with Legos, erector sets and other materials, a climbing structure that spans two stories, and a quiet, sensory room for children with autism that would be built out inside a former bank vault.
Architectural plans for the museum include keeping the former First National Bank’s cathedral-like vaulted ceiling and massive plaster, brick and gilded trim-work in place. It would give part of the building the architectural feel of a classic, urban museum space.
That’s in addition to an all-new west annex that would be a dual-floor space for exhibits, play areas, and even a birthday celebration room.
Westphal says the hope would be to bring forth a children’s museum that would eventually attract 100,000 visitors a year to Janesville’s downtown.
He says the commercial development prospects that could spring up around that type of foot traffic are already materializing in talks with apartment and commercial space developers.
“I could go on and on,” Westphal told reporters at the event.
Cullen-Schultz says alongside JP Cullen taking the lead as the contractor building out the project, her firm can also now jump in to help cheer-lead and market the children’s museum to potential donors and others who may still be on the sidelines.
JP Cullen, a five-generation, family-run Janesville business, initially built the First National Bank building. That was over 100 years ago.
Museum board members say the group chose JP Cullen out of an RFP process, alongside two other project bidders.
The children’s museum capital campaign rolls out during a robust time for big-ticket, local nonprofit construction projects that have blossomed into major, public-private partnerships.
There’s the $48-million Woodman’s Sports & Convention Center that’s now on the rise at the Uptown Janesville Mall. Then, there’s the multi-million-dollar Boys & Girls Club facility that’s planned on Janesville’s near-south side.
Both those projects have drawn major funding commitments from big-ticket local philanthropists, as well as multi-million-dollar investments and incentives by the city of Janesville.
The Children’s Museum of Rock County itself lays claim to $2 million in city funding commitments.
Museum board officials say the group would buy the First National property from its current owner, Forward Janesville’s Forward Foundation, for $1.
Westphal says the museum’s board already knows it’ll have to raise about $250,000 a year to endow the museum with enough operating capital to run it year-round — and that’s separate from the $10-million the group says it needs in place to pull the trigger on building out the museum.
Children’s Museum board member Olivia McCarthy, a Fourth-Ward resident who grew up in Rock County, says she’s thrilled to see major investments in children and families coming closer to fruition in downtown Janesville.
She says she’s watched Janesville pivot from a post-General Motors factory town struggling to find its feet to a city that’s now prizing new opportunities to grow, change, and become a community built and geared for families.
If the children’s museum planned at the former First National Bank becomes a go, Westphal says he thinks it could be running sometime in 2026.
By then, Westphal says, he thinks downtown could have enough new visitors pouring in that a parking deck on the downtown’s west side could be needed.
Big Radio reporter-anchor Neil Johnson gathered information for this report.
