On tap for $8M Carmel child-care center: bowling, theater, science

Phoenix-based Children’s Learning Adventure plans bring its state-of-the-art child-care concept to Indiana, proposing an $8 million facility at a prominent corner in Carmel.

The 3.3-acre site is located at 116th Street and College Avenue, just west of the multi-tenant retail strip that includes Upland Brewing Co.’s Carmel Tap House. Other neighbors include J.C. Hart Co.’s One One Six Apartments and the Indiana Municipal Power Agency offices.

Preliminary plans call for a 33,237-square-foot building with an eye-catching glass-walled rotunda. Indoor amenities are slated to include bowling lanes, a culinary classroom, a theater and a science lab. Outdoor activity areas feature sports courts and playgrounds.

Children’s Learning Adventure lists the Carmel site as “coming soon” on its website. Company officials were not immediately available for comment, but the site say its highly trained staff delivers a curriculum based on the latest brain-development research.

The company also has a Fishers location in the works, at the Fishers Marketplace development north of State Road 37 and 131st Street.

The Carmel facility is expected to have a full-time staff of at least 40 and up to 220 part-time positions. As proposed, the building could accommodate as many as 350 children at one time.

Plans call for offering infant care, preschool and after-school programs serving children ages 6 weeks through 12 years. Security measures include biometric fingerprint scanners at the two building entrances.

Carmel Clay Plan Commission is scheduled to review the facility’s development plan along with building architecture, design, lighting and signage at a Dec. 16 meeting. Its special-studies committee likely will take a deeper dive before making a recommendation to the full panel.

City planners have asked for a number of changes, including moving the rotunda closer to the corner and reducing the scale of cosmetic elements that nearly double the building’s height.