The day care services at Pammel Court are packing up their blocks and tricycles and relocating to a new building.

The Center for Child Care Resources, University Community Childcare and the Comfort Zone will be occupying a new building located at 100 University Village in February. The new building formerly served as administration offices for University Family Housing.

“We have remodeled and added on to the west and north side of the building,” said Julia Hagen, coordinator for Child Care Resources.

“It was time to move,” she said. “It is our mission to provide child care for faculty, staff and students, and we needed a state-of-the-art facility to model and set standards for early childhood education.”

There are national standards and regulations through the Iowa Department of Human Services the group adheres to, she said.

“We have done a lot of readings, [and] used practical experiences of what has and hasn’t worked, and what we would like to see,” said Penny Pepper, director of University Community Childcare.

Jerri Baumeister, director of the Center for Child Care Resources, said the new building will provide more office privacy for employees.

Working with clients will be more personal and more one-on-one, she said.

Eighty-five percent of the building will be dedicated to child care programs and 15 percent will be used as administrative offices, Hagen said.

The new child care building has been in the works for five years, but has been put on hold three times due to the budget restraints, she said.

“We have loved being at Pammel Court, but we have worn the buildings out,” Hagen said.

The new building will have classrooms for different age groups, a multipurpose room and a playground.

Every classroom has a door that goes directly outside to the playground, Hagen said. A porch runs around the building on the playground side, providing shade and an area for teaching, she said. There is also an open multipurpose area for motor skills, she said.

“During the winter, we are bringing in our tricycles and riding them,” Hagen said.

The multipurpose room will provide a place for children to play during the day and will give Baumeister a place to conduct her meetings in the evenings.

Pammel Court day care services offers training and professional development sessions for child care.

Currently, the day care has to depend on the generosity of churches and other businesses for room, she said.

Kathy Hakim, a mother of three who uses University Community Childcare, said she is very excited about the new location.

She said it will be helpful for children to have an up-to-date facility.