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Please Touch Museum Files For Bankruptcy

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Please Touch Museum announced on Friday that the museum has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The move is being done in an effort to settle a longstanding debt issue that the museum has.

According to the museum, the filing comes after two years of trying to restructure nearly $60 million in bond debt.

A settlement has been reached with a majority of the museum's bondholders.

Part of the settlement requires the Please Touch Museum to employ a $10 million fundraising campaign that must conclude by March of 2016. The museum announced that it will remain open throughout the fundraising period and the experience of visitors will not be impacted.

"Today's filing puts Please Touch Museum on a path towards even greater success," Sally W. Stetson, Chair of the Board of Directors, said in a statement on Friday.

"To be very clear, the Museum will remain open. We are simply entering into a process to resolve the institution's debt and position ourselves for lasting growth and sustainability.  When the process is complete, the Museum will be on stable financial ground, have a strong foundation for the future and offer expanded programming."

Stetson admitted that the process to getting to this settlement with the bondholders was not an easy one. "The negotiations lasted for so long that it placed the Museum in a sort of limbo.  Today's filing allows us to move forward once and for all."

The children's museum has developed a plan to renew and replace a number of their exhibits by 2026 and believes this settlement will open the door for that plan to be executed successfully.

 

 

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