WAIPOULI — Those wanting to support Kaua‘i Children’s Discovery Museum as it seeks a new home can attend a Thursday meeting. KCDM plans to close its current location May 31, states a press release. President of the museum’s board of
WAIPOULI — Those wanting to support Kaua‘i Children’s Discovery Museum as it seeks a new home can attend a Thursday meeting.
KCDM plans to close its current location May 31, states a press release.
President of the museum’s board of directors, Jonathan Chun, states in a release that the museum will look at the setback in a positive light and seek new relationships in the community — and ideally a new home.
Chun said they have had discussions about potential joint venture relationships, and the closure will allow the KCDM board to more fully focus on its next steps.
“A core part of our strategic plan in the coming months is to focus our efforts on bringing a diverse selection of educationally stimulating programs to the island of Kaua‘i,” Chun states in the release.
He states “the current shopping center owners were unwilling to include KCDM in its immediate plans for the shopping center and informed us that we could remain only on a short term lease basis, and could likely see a substantial rent increase which would make it impossible for the museum to continue to run its programs at the current location.”
In January, Faris Lee Investments partnered with Diversified Equity Investment Corp., the largest shopping center owners in Hawai‘i, to buy the Kauai Village property from then-owner PASSCO.
An owner representative could not be reached for comment yesterday.
“In an effort to protect our financial and other resources and be as proactive as possible, we felt it best to close immediately,” Chun said.
Updated information will be available on the KCDM Web site, www.kcdm.org, Chun said.
An informational meeting will be held at KCDM Thursday for members and the general public, Chun said. The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. at 4-832 Kuhio Highway, suite 332.
“We could not have made it to where we are today without the ongoing support of the members and the visitor community,” Chun said.
“We look forward to working with our supporters so all the children on Kaua‘i can share in the joy of learning.”
