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The Mob Museum is shown before the grand opening in downtown Las Vegas, Tuesday February 14, 2012. The building, a former federal courthouse and post office, was completed in 1933 and is listed on the Nevada and National Registers of Historic Places. It is also one of 14 sites in the nation that hosted the 1950-51 U.S. Senate Special Committees to investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce, also known as the Kefauver hearings.
By Dave Toplikar (contact) 
Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Jonathan Ullman, executive director of the Mob Museum, poses in the lobby of the museum in downtown Las Vegas Monday, Feb. 13, 2012. The museum, in a renovated former federal courthouse and U.S. Post Office, will have its grand opening Tuesday.
Map of Mob Museum
Mob Museum
300 Stewart Ave, Las Vegas
The Las Vegas Mob Museum recently recorded its 100,000th visitor and is on track to reach 200,000 by the end of the year, Executive Director Jonathan Ullman said.
A marketing study commissioned before the museum opened projected visitation at 250,000 to 600,000 a year, but that was before the economic downturn, he said.
Still, Ullman said he’s confident the attraction will have no problem covering its expenses in its first year.
It’s clear Ullman is focused on the future and the role the National Museum of Organized Crime & Law Enforcement is expected to play in Mayor Carolyn Goodman’s vision of a downtown resurgence.
“We’re basically the first to the party down here,” Ullman said, gesturing around the neighborhood at Stewart Avenue and Third Street, about two blocks north of the Fremont Street Experience.
“We’re surrounded by construction right now,” he said. “You dial ahead, two to three years from now, it’s going to be completely different.”
He looked to the east at the Zappos renovation at the old Las Vegas City Hall, expected to bring more than 1,000 of the online shoe and clothing retailer’s employees downtown by this time next year.
He gestured across Stewart Street at the construction fences blocking off two projects — the renovation of the former Lady Luck into the Downtown Grand resort and the Downtown3rd development, which is expected to bring 18 restaurants and bars to the neighborhood by late 2013.
“When people wonder what the future bodes, we see the trajectory going upwards,” Ullman said, watching as a few people crossed Stewart at Third Street to come to the museum. “If you went back a year ago, you wouldn’t see anybody walking down the street.”
He also pointed south, about a half a block to the Triple George restaurant and the Mob Bar — saying many people leave the museum and stop off at those establishments to spend money downtown.
As he spoke, a tour bus passed by with a large sign advertising the Mob Attraction Las Vegas, a competing interactive attraction at the Tropicana.
Ullman frowned when asked if the privately funded Mob Attraction was drawing tourists away from the Mob Museum, which was funded by federal, state and local grants as part of the renovation of the former courthouse and post office.
“Frankly, it creates confusion,” Ullman said. “Long term, it’s not a concern for us. But as with any new business opening up, trying to establish itself in the marketplace and trying to build an awareness, it poses certain challenges.”
Meanwhile, the museum, which operates as a 501c3 nonprofit organization, is on track to cover its $3.5 million operating budget for its first year, he said. Ullman declined to provide specific figures, saying those would be made available at the end of the year to the museum’s board of directors.
“We are in a financially sound condition. We are doing fine,” he said.
The museum generates revenue through ticket sales, memberships, its gift store, parking, food and beverage sales, facility rentals for private events and special events featuring guest speakers.
About 55 people are employed at the museum, including 20 to 25 full-time employees, he said.
The Mob Museum, which opened Feb. 14, is in the historic federal courthouse and post office at Third Street and Stewart Avenue. One of the key reasons the museum is there is because it served as a venue for one of the 14 nationally televised Kefauver hearings on organized crime in 1950.
At that time, much of the Las Vegas casino industry was controlled by organized crime families with ties to Chicago, New York and Kansas City.
Artifacts in the museum’s interactive exhibits include those from mobsters including Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal and Tony “The Ant” Spilotro.
The Mob Museum got a good write up in the San Francisco Chronicle travel section.
Glad to know they have people coming to the museum. I need to go myself the next time visit my mom.
Now let the haters hate.
Given the Mob Museum had a huge launch, 100,000 is way short of projections. The next six months will probably see a slowdown.
The numbers are okay, but the museum has long term challenges. I have been and it is a well done and worth it, but doing a repeat visit? It would need something new.
So these numbers might be as good as it gets.
It is a great place to go see the past, I signed up to be a member what a great deal!
Doing it right is why this place is successful!
Visited in August. Enjoyed the museum and got the recommendation to visit Triple George from one of the great staff.
All around, a great day.
Happy to hear that the museum is a success.
Ullman might be good at museums but he is not good at MATH. He seems to have already learned to do it the way that the City Manager's Office likes to tell stories. REALITY CHECK: IF 100,000 PEOPLE HAVE VISITED IN 8 MONTHS, THEN 125,000 PEOPLE WILL VISIT BY THE END OF THE YEAR, AND 150,000 PEOPLE WILL HAVE VISITED BY FEBRUARY 14, 2013 AT BEST ON THEIR ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY. Adjusted low estimates were that 250,000 - 600,000 people were to visit the Mob Museum per year by all of the city's fancy, overpaid consultants. Original high estimates that began the project with much flourish and enthusiasm to convince the City Council to spend $42,000,000 of City, State and Federal money on the project!
Sorry, original high estimates were 600,000 - 900,000 people per year to visit the Mob Museum. They said it would match or beat the Spy Museum in Washington, DC. NOT!!!