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Clarksburg will become more child friendly in the spring with the addition of a day care center and health club for children.

Watch Me Grow day care center, run by Family Services Inc. of Gaithersburg, and Bounce U, owned by Brian and Nicole Reap of Gaithersburg, plan to open in the Gateway 270 West warehouse and research/development complex on Gateway Center Drive.

The county Planning Board on Dec. 18 gave First Potomac Realty Trust LLC of Columbia permission to modify an existing 60,000-square-foot building used for research and development and warehouse space for the child-oriented businesses.

Bounce U will be a franchise of the Arizona-based health club and party facility for children. It will offer private parties in two rooms equipped with moonbounces and climbing apparatus and a party room for cake and pizza. The club will also offer classes for children in fitness and art combined with bouncing, Brian Reap said.

The children's party business is a billion-dollar industry, Reap said.

"It takes the pressure off parents to do everything," he said.

Watch Me Grow will be a day care center for children from infancy through age 5, said Thom Harr, director of Family Services. It will be licensed to handle 120 children, including 18 infants, he said.

"Our understanding is we'll be the first child care center in Clarksburg," he said.

At least one local church and several private homes in the community offer day care services.

The location is ideal, Harr said. Gateway Center Drive is south of Clarksburg Road and the Clarksburg Road interchange of Interstate 270 is on the southwest side of the complex.

"We've wanted to do something in the upcounty and this just came up," Harr said. "We're very pleased."

Family Services is a nonprofit affiliate of the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Foundation. It has provided services to foster health and well-being in the home, school and community for almost 100 years, according to the agency's Web site.

"We hope we'll be part of the community up there for a long time," Harr said.

The Clarksburg day care center will be run as a market-priced center, he said. The proceeds of the center will help fund the agency's social service work, he said.

Debby Fletcher, who provides child care in her home, was delighted to hear the two businesses were coming to Clarksburg.

"There's a need for good, quality child care," she said.

As to her reaction to opening a Bounce U, she said, "I think that would be fantastic. There's nothing up here now other than the [recreation] center in Damascus or Little Gym in Germantown."

The community needs more places for children, said Kathie Hulley, president of the Clarksburg Civic Association.

"Clarksburg is a desert basically, we don't have anything much," she said. "Kudos to people for [opening the businesses]. I think it might be a lot of fun."

Gateway 270 West is a six-building warehouse and research and development complex. It is the site of the Clarksburg Post Office and the temporary Clarksburg fire station and is zoned industrial.

First Potomac Realty Trust will convert 9,000 square feet of warehouse or research and development space for the health club and 11,000 square feet for the day care center. The company will make an outdoor fenced-in playground for the day care center within the existing parking lot, taking away 10 parking spaces. Since the building has ample parking, taking away the spaces is not a problem, the Planning Board said.

Kane Construction of Rockville has been hired to modify the buildings, said Ryan Beible of First Potomac, construction manager for the project.

He expects construction to begin this month. Reap has planned a March 6 opening. Harr expects to open in April or May.