Hands On Children’s Museum presents expansion plan to Port Commission
The popular Hands on Children’s Museum, which opened in its current East Bay location 13 years ago and served more than 300,000 visitors last year, wants to expand north with a second building, more outdoor learning space and more parking.
The proposal was shared with the Port of Olympia commission on Monday because the commission must approve a land deal for the project to advance.
“We do have more visitors per square foot than any of the nation’s 470 children’s museums, which is a nice way of saying that we want to expand and that we’re putting a lot of people in a small space,” museum Chief Executive Patty Belmonte told the commission.
“We are a mid-size museum, but we have a king-size attendance,” she said.
The museum has done its best to accommodate current growth by extending its hours to seven days a week and has tried selling tickets for specific visiting times, Belmonte said.
“It’s really challenging, because if you have a young child and they have a meltdown, there’s no way you’re going to stick to that time ticket,” she said.
The museum also would like to have room to host traveling exhibits.
“We’re very programming heavy, and we feature lots of artists and scientists and guests, but we’d love to have a space where we could bring in exhibits from other areas,” Belmonte said.
The expansion proposal involves the port, the city and the museum — the same three partners that were involved in the current museum. Under the proposal, the port would sell two parcels north of the museum — known as lots 6 and 7 on East Bay — to the city for $2.1 million.
The current museum, according to Monday’s presentation, measures 28,000 square feet. The second building is not expected to be larger than that, with either a ground bridge or sky bridge connecting the two structures, Belmonte said.
If approved by the port commission on April 28 — and at a later date by Olympia City Council — the city would own the land and the shell of the building, and the museum would operate it and own all of the improvements to the building, said Mike Reid, the port’s director of communications and economic development.
Belmonte said the museum is about to embark on a $35 million fundraising campaign, $25 million of which would be secured by Public Facility District funds, according to the presentation.
“This project was built in part with public facility district (PFD) funds,” she said about the current museum. To explain it simply, she said sales tax revenue is retained within the jurisdiction and used for tourism promotion projects.
In the last few years, the state legislature extended PFDs, Belmonte said. There are two in Thurston County: one that funded the Regional Athletic Complex in Lacey and one for the museum.
“And so the legislature extended them so that we can collect funds for a longer period of time, which will allow buildings to be improved or expanded,” she said.
Other funding for the project is expected to come from grants and foundations as well as donations from individuals and businesses, according to the presentation.
Although the commission is set to vote on the sale April 28, the port is not expected to close on the deal until November to give the city of Olympia time to take its next steps, Reid said.
The port commission seemed pleased with the proposal, with Commissioner Amy Evans Harding calling it “cool and exciting.”
Construction on the expansion is expected to begin in fall 2026, with the new space opening in the winter of 2027-2028.
This story was originally published April 15, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
