Macerich’s Santa Monica Place outdoor mall (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The Zimmer Children’s Museum said Tuesday it will move from its space along the Miracle Mile district to the Macerich-owned Santa Monica Place outdoor mall in late 2018, hoping to boost its attendance.
The museum’s new 20,000-square-foot space will be about twice the size of its current space at the Jewish Federation Goldsmith Center on Wilshire Boulevard, and will include a museum shop. While the existing space is close to Museum Mile, museum officials said the museum will immediately benefit from the mall location. The 517,000-square-foot mall, anchored by Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s, is a few blocks from the Santa Monica Pier, between Santa Monica Boulevard and Colorado Avenue.
The nonprofit, known as the Zimmer Children’s Museum by ShareWell, expects the new location to draw around 250,000 annual visitors. The museum said it will release renderings of the project soon, according to a news release.
The museum is an arts and educational group that offers free and paid programming for children. It emphasizes community building and youth leadership. Its two main programs are the children’s museum for kids younger than 8 years old, and a development program for middle and high school students.
ShareWell board chairman Andy Kaplan said the move was many years in the making, and that the Santa Monica Place location offered the visibility and accessibility to serve the group’s educational mission.
Art Coppola, CEO of Santa Monica-based Macerich, said the Zimmer Museum will enhances “the cultural dimensions” of Santa Monica Place.
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