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Children's Museum plans big expansion

Shari Rudavsky
IndyStar
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is planning an expansion that is expected to cost more than $10 million.

When you walk into The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, an overhead speaker welcomes you.  "If it’s cold out there, it’s fun in here," it says. "If it’s hot out there, it’s fun in here."

Now, the museum is poised to bring the fun outside.

It plans to build a 10-acre attraction on the parking lot north of its building called the "Sports Legend Experience." The site will house an 18-hole mini golf course, tennis, street hockey, basketball courts and two pedal cart race tracks: an oval and drag race tracks.

The site also will house a soccer field, as well as track and family fitness loops, according to plans the museum filed with the city’s Metropolitan Development Commission, requesting permission for the project. Football and baseball fields are part of the plans, too, according to a rendering provided to the commission.

Children’s Museum spokeswoman Leslie Olsen said in an email that the project will cost considerably more than $10 million.

Olsen declined to provide further details, saying the museum will hold a press conference next month to share additional information.

The area also would include an event/tent space with access from Meridian Street, according to the materials the museum filed with the city.

Commission staff recommended approving the plans.

The exhibit will “provide both parents and children an outdoor sports experience in a noncompetitive environment within the Children  Museum’s campus,” the commission report said.

It also would bring another space for children in the area to engage in physical activity. Studies have found that as many as one-third of children in Marion County are overweight or obese.

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Call IndyStar reporter Shari Rudavsky at (317) 444-6354. Follow her on Twitter: @srudavsky.