It’s been about four months since the board of Kenai’s Challenger Learning Center of Alaska abruptly voted to shut its doors, citing financial hardship. The void has Kenai wondering what to do with the vacant building.
For more than two decades, Alaska’s Challenger Learning Center sent kids on simulated space missions, brought the community together for astronomic phenomena and trained local workers in best safety practices.
But last year, Tim Dillon told the Kenai City Council the facility has been struggling financially for years. Until the doors closed, Dillon served as executive director of the facility’s board of directors.
“When you look across the table, you need to be able to tell your staff where their paycheck is coming from and if they’re going to get a paycheck,” he said. “And when you get to a point where you can’t do that anymore, you’ve got to make changes.”
Dillon said the vote to close the center, while unanimous, was difficult.
Named for the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, Kenai’s center was one of dozens nationwide that sought to bring hands-on science, technology, math and engineering education to young people.
Josh Bolling says it was effective in his case. He’s the student representative on the Kenai City Council.
“I remember when I was in seventh grade, my class went over to the Challenger Center, and going over there, I think, is what made me fall in love with space and engineering,” he said. “And, like, I think now my major that I want to go into is going to be aerospace engineering.”
Now that the building isn’t a space education center, the city’s trying to figure out what to do with it. Building maintenance and upkeep shifted to the city when the building officially closed in mid-November. That put Kenai on the hook for almost $83,000 through June, with each year after running the city about $100,000.
Kenai City Manager Terry Eubank says outside groups have ideas for the space, which he shared with Kenai City Council members during a recent work session.
“I've been contacted by at least one real estate agent with an entity in town that would be interested in potentially purchasing it, he said. “We had the principal of a charter school show up. I know the school district … walked through the facility.”
A walk-through with center and city maintenance staff revealed the 26-year-old building is in pretty good condition, Eubank says. It’ll likely need a new roof in about seven years – estimated to cost between $2 and $3 million – and the boiler is good for at least another 10.
The building’s assessed value is around $8.2 million and it spans more than 19,000 square feet. It sits on a 2.3-acre lot adjacent to Kenai Central High School and the Kenai ice rink.
Eubank says there are limits to what the building can be used for that are a product of how the property has changed hands over the years.
The center sits on land that was gifted from the Alaska Mental Health Trust to the Kenai Peninsula Borough, then to the city, with the condition that it be used for governmental purposes.
“At this point, it could limit some of our opportunities there,” he said.
Eubank says the city’s not super clear what does and does not qualify as a government purpose. So the city is working with the borough to get that limit – called a deed restriction – removed.
One use that would directly boost Kenai’s government operations would be a public safety building. The city’s identified a need for major improvements to or reconstruction of its existing public safety building and has been brainstorming solutions for months. Eubank says the Challenger Center could be a good fit.
Jay Teague agrees. He’s Kenai’s fire chief and says better proximity to Kenai’s middle and high schools would be a big plus. The department already responds to frequent calls from that area. And Teague says he’d like to offer professional development opportunities at the station for young people.
And he says moving the department farther east would put first responders closer to more city residents.
“And that would also centralize us a little bit more within our response district and therefore perhaps lower our average response times for the fire department for both EMS and fire response,” he said.
Council member Bridget Grieme says the council should make the property cohesive, keeping in mind nearby schools and the city’s multipurpose facility and ice rink.
“We have the ability to be picky, I think, to some degree and to be sure that what we choose for that space to be used for is appropriate for what’s already there,” she said. “That’s the point I want to make is to just be mindful of what’s going on around that space already.”
The future of the Challenger Learning Center is still in limbo, with any future changes subject to city council approval. The city’s in the process of evaluating whether it could work as a public safety building, and Eubank’s floated a call for proposals to gauge private sector interest. But for now, the building’s quiet.
