Children’s Museum Moving Into Downtown St. Cloud

ST. CLOUD -- A children's museum has announced their plan to move into a permanent home in downtown St. Cloud.  They will be renovating the building that's currently the headquarters for Liberty Bank Minnesota on 7th Avenue.

A local non-profit group, The Great River Children’s Exploratorium has announced they will be establishing a Children’s Museum at the site.

In December, Liberty plans on donating the Downtown Liberty complex to be used as the new Children’s Museum, which will be remodeled, redesigned and operated by GRCE.

St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis says it is a significant donation to the non-profit at about $1 1/2 million dollars.

The donation is pending regulatory and other approvals and is expected to be completed in early December.

Liberty Bank President Mark Bragelman says they wanted to do something significant with the building and to create something that's going to be a destination.

GRCE Board Member Sarah McKeever says the facility will be geared toward children ages zero to 10 years old.

The next steps will be planning and designing the museum, raising money, hiring staff, and developing the exhibits.

Liberty Bank Minnesota announced last October that they were building a new bank at the corner of 29th Avenue South and 2nd Street South in St. Cloud.  They are expected to move into that building later this fall.

GRCE Board Member Glen Palm says there are currently six children's museums in Minnesota: St. Paul, Grand Rapids, Rochester, Duluth, Mankato, and Hutchinson.  He says there's also one in the works right now for Brainerd.