Children’s Museum may be moving on up

Jennifer Shubinski

Monday, Oct. 3, 2005 | 8:20 a.m.

The Lied Discovery Children's Museum is strongly considering moving from its location across from Cashman Field, north of downtown Las Vegas, to a retail and office development now under construction about a mile south of Mandalay Bay.

Two factors are driving the museum board's consideration of the move. One is is the project developers' offer of five years of free rent for 50,000 square feet of space on the second and third floors of a new building, an offer the developers say is worth at least $5.5 million. The museum now pays about $100,000 per year to the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District for 25,000 square feet of space in a building it shares with the Las Vegas Library.

The second key factor is the prospect of moving to what the board feels is a nicer part of town. Rumors have been circulating for some time that the children's museum has been scouting for a new home away from its current location on Las Vegas Boulevard near Washington Avenue.

Other cultural institutions and the Sawyer State Office Building are located within a few blocks of Lied in what is called Las Vegas' "Cultural Corridor." These include the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, the Reed Whipple Cultural Center, the Old Mormon Fort and the Neon Museum. The children's museum is attached to the Las Vegas Library.

Some cultural leaders are concerned with the impact of the museum moving on its present neighborhood, a partially blighted, economically depressed area that many feel is just starting to turn itself around.

The opportunity to move presented itself by way of the rent offer from the local development firm Centra and Florida-based Turnberry Associates.

The development companies have offered the 15-year-old museum space in a new shopping center above retail stores that would put the children's museum at the heart of Centra and Turnberry's Town Square, a 1.7 million-square-foot urban lifestyle development under construction on Las Vegas Boulevard near Interstates 15 and 215. The center, expected to open in early 2007, will include stores, restaurants, offices and a small upscale hotel.

While museum officials have been talking with the developers for a year, it wasn't until Friday evening at the nonprofit group's annual gala that they made their goal of the prospect of a new museum and location public.

"We are announcing that we have this great vision and great community partners that are willing to participate in that vision," said Peter Poggione, vice president of the trustees' board and president-elect.

Part of that vision has the museum raising tens of millions of dollars to fund the move, including the development of new exhibits. In addition, an endowment would be set up so operating expenses would no longer be a concern. The museum also hopes to attract a new director; Suzanne LeBlanc recently took a position with another museum after 15 years on the job.

One thing is certain: The move would allow the museum to increase its annual attendance, which currently is about 100,000 visitors.

"Whether we multiply that by 10 or 20 we don't know, our earned income is a mystery," Poggione said. "They are estimating 10 million visitors a year to Town Square. How many of those people walk though the doors of our facility is the unknown."

Poggione stressed that the museum still has "a lot of homework" to do before a final decision is made.

Part of that homework will be a feasibility study that will gauge the community's interest and support and whether a move would make financial sense. If the momentum keeps growing, the move could take place as soon as 2007.

The study is being funded by John Ritter, Focus Property Group chief executive and a Lied board member.

While Poggione stresses that the museum has not made a final decision to move, it appears board members believe that the community will support such a decision.

"People are ready for this; people with money are ready to put their money behind it," Poggione said. As an example of the growing support, he pointed out that 900 people attended this year's gala - more than double the year before.

What board members and supporters are hoping for is that Las Vegas is ready to support a "world-class" children's museum.

"Great cities have great museums. This museum can be a great museum," Ritter said.

The possible move concerns the museum's neighbors. A coalition of nonprofit cultural institutions, business owners and residents work to support and improve the six-block neighborhood along Las Vegas Boulevard between Bonanza Road and Washington Avenue.

The group started its Second Saturday events this summer in hopes that families will museum hop throughout the day.

"I would hate to see them move the children's museum," said Marilyn Gillespie, executive director of the Las Vegas Natural History Museum and coalition president. "It's very advantageous for cultural institutions to be grouped together.

"There's a synergy involved, and it strengthens all of us to have us all together."

Gillespie said the Natural History Museum serves more than 20,000 at-risk school children every year.

"Some school teachers ... want to see both museums (the history and children's museum) and be efficient in their school-trip scheduling," she said. "Visiting both of us on the same day would be out; it would be a disadvantage to teachers."

Dan Romano, facilities manager for the Neon Museum, said he understands why the children's museum would want to move, but said it would only hurt the already fragile neighborhood.

"There's a lot of needy children in this neighborhood and a lot of the children are learning to access (cultural resources) on their own," he said. "It's important for those children in these older neighborhoods."

The Neon Museum expects to break ground on its building and neon garden within the next year. It currently operates the neon bone yard for discarded signs from Las Vegas' storied past.

Romano said the neighborhood has a bad reputation, in part because of the five nearby homeless shelters.

"It's just the long-term bad perception that it gives the area," he said.

The library, and by association the attached children's museum, get the brunt of homeless people who are looking for a cool, safe place to spend their days, Romano said.

Poggione conceded that the area's rough image is one reason the museum wants to move.

"People are intimidated by the location, and frankly a lot of people don't know we exist," he said. "It's not on enough people's radar to satisfy us."

Gillespie said the area needs time and help to develop into a more attractive neighborhood.

She said the biggest hurdle is not the location of the museums within the Cultural Corridor, but that they are underexposed.

"That's a bigger factor than (the public doesn't) want to go down here," Gillespie said.

Backers of the move contend that it will actually reach more families because of what they perceive as an even more central location.

"It's a very central location, so we could continue to fulfill our mission statement and bring our educational experience to a wider audience," Poggione said.

But it can also be argued that the museum's current location, off of U.S. 95 just east of I-15 is just as central.

"It's got a great central location, dead center in the middle of the valley," Chuck Creigh, chairman of the Natural History Museum, said of the Cultural Corridor. "For us, we're where we need to be, and we're convenient."

Historically Las Vegas museums have struggled to gain audience and support from the community.

Ironically, in a town that runs on money and tourism, the valley's museums have seen little of both.

"It is very difficult to operate a museum in Las Vegas," Gillespie said. "Most museums all over the world can rely on tourism as a large base of revenue. In Las Vegas, that just doesn't happen in museums."

All the more reason to move the children's museum to Town Square, just south of Mandalay Bay, supporters said.

"We are moving them to the heart of the action, so it's easily accessible to tourists, making the museum more successful and more dynamic," Ritter said.

The vision for Town Square is strikingly different from the museum's current neighborhood.

It will have at least 20 restaurants, 150 retailers - including Apple, Lucky Brand, Abercrombie & Fitch, Kenneth Cole, Chico's, Bath & Body Works and Hollister and Solstice - a 20-screen movie theater, a bowling alley and a 229-room "boutique" hotel. There also is 200,000 square feet of office space planned for the site.

From the beginning, Jim Stuart and Kenny Sullivan, principals of Centra, said they envisioned the center as a family gathering place. Both have young children and said they were tired of not having a family-oriented place to spend an afternoon.

"There is a natural synergy to families and the audience of a town square," Stuart said.

As part of the Town Square, the developers are planning a $5 million children's park that will include a historic carousel and a garden maze.

"We've had a commitment to creating that type of environment from the beginning," Stuart said. "A children's museum will only enhance the experience at Town Square for families."

Poggione said the bottom line is that the move would be good for the museum and the community.

"The way I look at it personally, it's the opportunity of a lifetime to have a situation like this, it's so ideal," he said. "For us to be invited in and ushered in with open arms is a dream come true."

Jennifer Shubinski is a business writer for the Sun and its sister newspaper, In Business Las Vegas. She can be reached at (702) 259-8832 or by e-mail at js@lasvegassun.com.

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