Tuscaloosa Realtor Lists Beloved Downtown Children’s Hands-On Museum for Sale

A beloved fixture of downtown Tuscaloosa is officially for sale as the Children's Hands-On Museum prepares to rebrand and relocate inside the under-construction Saban Center.

CHOM has served and educated children since it was first put together on the University of Alabama campus in 1986, and moved to its colorful home on University Boulevard two years later.

The city of Tuscaloosa announced last year that the museum for kids will wind down operations and close in August 2026, but will reemerge next year as IGNITE at the Saban Center - a modern interpretation of the same fundamental ideas. Children will still have hands-on learning opportunities across a variety of topics, but IGNITE will be sharply STEAM-focused, with an eye toward the careers of the future.

On Wednesday, Tuscaloosa Realtor JacQuan Winters of Pritchett-Moore Real Estate announced that he has listed CHOM's longtime home at 2311 University Boulevard for sale. The three-floor building features 25,520 square feet and was built in 1945.

Situated between City Hall and the new Lamon's Fried & Frosty restaurant, the museum property is in the heart of downtown Tuscaloosa and could be used for commercial, residential or mixed development concepts.

The listing price is just under $4.8 million, and Winters is taking inquiries about the CHOM building at 205-535-6564.

The Saban Center is under construction now at the former site of the Tuscaloosa News, which sold its downtown headquarters to the city in 2019. As the scope of the project ballooned, it became clear that remodeling the 90,000 square-foot newspaper building would not serve new needs and the council approved demolishing it in 2023.

Now, the new construction of the $120 million Saban Center is underway on the site, which is across from the Mercedes-Benz Amphitheater.

For more information on the University Boulevard museum property, read more at Winters' listing on Pritchett Moore's site here, and for more coverage of news in west Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.