Crews were busy this week cleaning, testing, and putting the finishing touches on an expanded Strong Museum of Play ahead of Friday’s big opening.
Some 1,200 children and adults flooded into the museum in the first hour of the opening.
“It is absolutely unbelievable,” said Mayor Malik Evans, who got an early look at the expansion during a reception Thursday night. “To see Hasbro come to life outside was absolutely unbelievable. And to see a place where just about every video game imaginable — games that my older brother who's 10 years older than me played. And then games that I played. And now games that my kids are playing.
"I don't use this word often, but it is awe-inspiring.”
A ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday officially opened the museum expansion, drawing a host of dignitaries also including congressmen, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and a slew of other state, county and local elected officials. Several of those in attendance — including Evans — brought their children.
The museum is the last piece of the Neighborhood of Play, and a focal point of the Eastern Inner Loop reconstruction begun almost a decade ago. The planned neighborhood that surrounds it includes apartments, restaurants, and a Hampton Inn & Suites hotel that opened this week.
“It took a big, huge effort by all parties involved to get here because of delays and things,” Indus Hospitality’s Katie Patnode said of the hotel. “It’s been a long time coming for us. So we're just happy to be open at this point.”
Here, as elsewhere, work was slowed by the pandemic and supply chain issues. The hotel initially was projected to open in fall 2021.
“We brought help in from our other properties ... and what they have pulled off in the last few weeks is really, really monumental for our company,” Patnode said.
The goal has always been to open in conjunction with the museum expansion. The hotel bar Lila’s isn't ready yet but should be in a couple of weeks, Patnode said, serving craft cocktails and small plates.
Over at the museum — with its massive, $70 million-plus, video game-themed expansion — children and adults played video games, climbed over giant Jenga pieces and tried their hand at a fire and smoke breathing five-headed dragon.
The museum has been closed in recent days as workers literally flipped the entrance from the south side of the building to the new, northside entryway, and opened new pathways connecting the new and old sections of the building.
Thousands of visitors are expected. Doors close at 8 p.m.
There is still work to be done.
A parklike area along Adventure Place on the north side of the museum still is under construction. A giant kugel ball weighing about 20 tons is expected to arrive late next month, and the park should be completed in August, museum officials said.
This neighborhood is part of the redevelopment of what was the eastern leg of the Inner Loop. Work to fill in the sunken highway began almost a decade ago. Construction on the museum parking garage and buildings has been ongoing over the past five years.
“As far as the heavy construction of it all, once The Strong has completed their outdoor space … the major part of the construction will be done,” Patnode said.
About half the retail space has filled. But Tim Schmid, president of Konar Properties, said there has been “a significant increase in serious prospects over the past couple of months. The opening of both are definitely a factor in peoples’ planning.”
“We’re also deliberate about what types of businesses we want in there, to ensure we provide a balance of services to our residents, as well as museum visitors and hotel guests,” he said in an email. “We could have filled the whole street with bars and dispensaries, but that isn’t consistent with our vision for the Neighborhood of Play.”
