A children's museum will still be built at Canalside, albeit at a different site and with a slightly longer timeline.
That's the message coming from Sam Hoyt, a member of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation board. However, Hoyt insists the decision to reissue a request for proposals is not a blow to long-discussed plans for an Explore and More Children's Museum on the downtown waterfront.
"I am totally optimistic, and certain, in fact, that Explore & More, as discussed for several years now, will have a very major presence at Canalside," Hoyt said on Wednesday.
"It will be a spectacular amenity."
Hoyt says a new request for proposals will be issued. He says planners ended talks with Ciminelli Real Estate because they believed the first plan relied too heavily on public subsidies.
The new plan will likely see the museum as a standalone facility on a different parcel on the South Aud Block, as opposed to pairing it up with other uses as the first plan envisioned.
Barbara Leggett, who heads the small museum now located in East Aurora, says she is convinced the project will move forward as envisioned and will be a major asset to the waterfront.
"We're really looking at the opportunity that we have and how to best move forward with it. I don't see it as a setback. I think it's a chance and change happens all the time in life. Our focus, always, has been on creating incredible, exciting, inspiring learning opportunities," Leggett said.