New Norwich business offers indoor space for young children to run, jump, climb

Parents open Busy Bees Play Hive, offering creative play

Norwich — Shilo Santor and Jessica Quay used to routinely drive their children 30 to 40 minutes to indoor playscapes or their favorite parks until they decided: “This is crazy.”

On Friday, Shilo and her husband, Keith Santor, will celebrate the grand opening of Busy Bees Play Hive at 20 New London Turnpike, next door to Domino's Pizza. The Santors own the new business, and Quay works as the couple's “creative director” – designing the bright color scheme, with flowers and bees on one wall and a honeycomb pattern on another.

The 2,700-square-foot facility offers walk-in, free-style indoor play space for children approximately ages 1 to 7, with parental supervision. Admission is $10 for the first child, $7.50 for each additional child, with no fee for the parent or guardian, ages 18 and up. The fee allows customers to come and go for the day.

The foam-padded play area — no shoes allowed and divided into sections for toddlers and older children — is decked out with climbing playground equipment, a toy train set and a farmer's market area with tiny shopping carts, realistic-looking vegetables, canned goods and other groceries. By Friday's opening, a bright yellow wooden beehive, also climbable, will dominate the front play space.

“This is the kind of thing we've been waiting for someone else to do for years,” co-owner Keith Santor said. “Shilo and Jessica figured they were just crazy enough to pull it off.”

Busy Bees Play Hive will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce from 8 to 9 a.m. Friday, with the facility open to the public starting at 10 a.m. Party bookings will start in December.

Last Friday, a week before the real grand opening, the Santors invited family and friends with young children to a soft opening to work out any kinks and hear their reviews.

“We figure our friends and family will be blunt with us,” Keith Santor said.

Children ran, laughed, shouted and screeched, darting from one play sta

tion to another, some bouncing balls and others pushing tiny shopping carts, handing grocery items to their parents or others. Some worked the manual small wooden trains and crane on the tracks, and others climbed the playground equipment, sliding down the slides or fire pole.

Shoes large and small were lined up neatly in one corner, where honeycomb shoe storage boxes will be located soon. A party room to the left served as a rest area. On the opposite side, a free coffee station is set up for adults. The Santors will offer socks for sale for children who wore sandals or arrived without socks and will sell prepackaged snacks and juice boxes.

Keith Santor, a U.S. Army veteran and now a computer-aided designer at Electric Boat, did much of the construction of the play equipment, including the beehive. Shilo Santor will run the place, along with Quay, who will run the birthday parties and already is working on craft workshops, moms' nights out and creative features.

“We're calling it ‘Vet owned, mom operated,'” Keith Santor said.

The Santors, both 30, have four children, all under age 7, including twin 2-year-olds. Quay, 31, has three children, also younger than 7 and with a set of 4-year-old twins. They're planning “Twinsie Tuesdays” twice a month with a two-for-one admission discount.

Mark Massey, owner of the plaza and the Domino's Pizza sat cross legged at the toy train station Friday morning with his own 2-year-old twins, Reagan and Liam. Reagan suddenly turned her attention to the climbing set-up and worked her way inside, looking at her dad through the large holes in the side, as he too turned his attention that way.

Massey said he met the Santors

through a former Domino's employee who now works at EB with Keith Santor. Shilo Santor and Quay had been driving around Norwich since February looking at potential locations for their new venture, and Massey showed them the long-vacant former Curves women's fitness center.

“I thought it was a great idea,” Massey said. “The area needs it.”

Renovations included removing some walls and adding a second egress side door through the small kitchen, ordered by the Norwich fire marshal. Massey worked with Norwich Public Utilities on bright LED energy efficiency lighting.

The Santors and Quay designed the space and fitted it out, including the laminate flooring and foam play space floor cover.

“They put a lot of work into this place,” Massey said. “They put a lot of sweat equity into it.”