ST. CHARLES — Play Street Museum, an indoor children’s play area, is looking for a buyer.
After five years of owning and operating the St. Charles location — and a rough go during COVID — Nicole Simon said she is ready to move on.
Simon said she is trying to avoid completely shuttering the business by searching for a new owner to keep the interactive museum in the community.
Like many small businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic significantly hurt the play space. Play Street Museum was closed for a couple of months and it was over a year before they could get back to normal operations, Simon said. She said she took on additional debt and saw her Small Business Administration loan double.
“COVID was pretty hard and difficult financially,” Simon said. “It’s a successful franchise, maybe a new owner can start fresh, with a clean slate.”
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Simon opened Play Street Museum at the Streets of St. Charles in 2019 after she discovered that the region didn’t have a concept like it at the time. She’d often taken her daughter to play at a location in Dallas.
Unlike some of the other indoor children’s spaces in the St. Louis region, Play Street Museum is small enough so parents don’t have to worry about their kids wandering off out of eyesight, Simon said. Geared towards kids eight and younger, the museum offers interactive toys and games that help facilitate collaboration and further develops life skills.
The museum is located at 1650 Beale Street and Simon said she plans to honor reserved parties and events, but doesn’t know how long the business will stay open without a buyer.
“If Play Street were to close, there would be a hole in the community,” she said.
