Where NAPA once sold auto parts at 179 Bath Road in Wiscasset, by next fall, Boothbay’s Michael and Kimberly Hilgendorf hope to have up to 49 area infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers playing and learning.

The couple, owners of Lighthouse Learning Center on Boothbay’s Pension Ridge Road, expect to close on the Route One property April 28 and open a state-licensed day care there. It will serve as a pre-school for about half the children who go there, Kimberly Hilgendorf said in a phone interview Tuesday evening.

The program for infants and toddlers will have structured activities just as the planned pre-school will, said Hilgendorf. The center will carry the Lighthouse name and expand the business, which has a waiting list, the Hilgendorfs said. Many families on the list live in the Wiscasset area and the couple wanted a location that could draw families from as far as Bath. The couple looked in Woolwich, but went with the former NAPA store because it would take little work to make into a center, Kimberly Hilgendorf said.

It should just need cosmetic work involving flooring and the windows and doors, she said. The garage part of the site can be made into a gym for the children to run and play in, she said. 

In a March 20 site plan review application, the couple had proposed a toy store as well as the pre-school. The planning board took up the proposal Monday night, but tabled it so the Hilgendorfs can update their plan that no longer includes the store, Town Planner Ben Averill said Tuesday. He said last week, the applicants need board approval to resume the property’s commercial use.

Kimberly Hilgendorf said they are also working to get a state license to serve 21-49 children at the site. “I think it’s going to be fantastic,” she said about the planned center.