Downtown Wheeling Child Care Center Set To Open in August

Newbridge Academy for Kids will soon fill a vital need for child care in the Ohio Valley across the street from the "old" bridge.

The academy, located at 1000 Main St. in the former Children's Museum building, will provide 236 spots for full-day preschool and child care services, summer programming and after-school support for children up to age 12.

There will be 22,000 square feet of the two-story building devoted to child care, including an indoor playground. The other 4,000 square feet will be transformed into the Newbridge Cafe, providing a place for parents to work and relax.

Newbridge Church, formerly The Vineyard Church, has committed $2.7 million for the $8 million project.

Funding will be provided by historic and new market tax credits, City of Wheeling American Rescue Plan Act funds, a HUD Congressionally Directed Spending Award, Newbridge Church congregation members, private foundations, corporate sponsorship and individual donors.

The academy, designed by McKinley Architecture, will preserve the 1930s Art Deco architecture of the building while turning the space into a state-compliant, licensed child care center.

"We recognize that when we purchased the space, we had the opportunity to restore a building at the gateway to our city," described Newbridge Church Lead Pastor and Newbridge Academy Founder Chris Figaretti. "It's an honor to be able to preserve that, and we're striving to do it right."

Renovations began at the beginning of Dec. 2023, with a plan for construction on the building to be completed by the middle of July for an August opening. To achieve this quick turnaround, Grae-Con construction employees hammered and drilled away during the groundbreaking for the center.

Figaretti explained the building came onto the nonprofit's radar when they began holding church services at the Capitol Theatre across the street.

"We knew we needed child care space for Sunday mornings," described Figaretti. "The kids were meeting in the ballroom on Sunday mornings, which was a suboptimal environment for them."

After acquiring the building from the Regional Economic Development Partnership, Figaretti realized that the space could not just serve the congregation, but the community as a whole.

"We're in the middle of a child care crisis," he described. "Wheeling is a child care desert. The average waiting time to get your kid into a child care center is 20 to 30 months. Word on the street is when you get engaged, get on a list at a child care center because it will take a long time to get them in."

During his speech at the groundbreaking, Mayor Glenn Elliott pointed out that his 2-year-old son is still on waiting lists for local day care centers. For him, the city council providing the $200,000 in ARPA funding for the center's outdoor playground in Market Street Plaza was a no-brainer.

"There's a need for child care in this community. It's something we hear all the time from employers and employees," described Elliott. "We want to get people to come to Wheeling and stay here, and we need it to work for young families with children, so this project checks many boxes."

One of those boxes for Elliott is bringing life to the "gateway" of Wheeling - the Main Street entrance to the city off of Interstate 70. He described the center as another improvement to the corner on top of renovations at the Bridge Tavern and the addition of the Doris Apartments and a soon-to-be visitors center.

"This project ties in nicely to all of that," noted Elliott. "It's going to look like this corner is alive when you're driving by and seeing kids playing in the playground."