News
3-25-2010
LAS VEGAS MUSEUM OF ORGANIZED CRIME AND LAW ENFORCEMENT TAKING SHAPE INSIDE HISTORIC DOWNTOWN POST OFFICE AND FEDERAL COURTHOUSE
(LAS VEGAS, NV) --- Construction on the Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement - aka “The Mob Museum” - is progressing toward a 2011 opening, and for the first time, project leaders unveiled today the design of a few key exhibits. Three exhibits within the museum include Mob Mayhem, The Skim and Bringing Down the Mob.
The Mob Mayhem exhibit furthers the understanding of violence as a way of life within the world of organized crime. During the Roaring ‘20s, many violent mob acts made headlines and began to change public perception of organized crime via the viciousness of its crimes that often involved innocent bystanders. Visitors will see some of the weapons used by mob hit men and learn more about the hidden messages of murder. This exhibit is the setting for the Museum’s iconic artifact—the wall from Chicago’s St. Valentine’s Day Massacre - and sets the stage for law enforcement strategies that will combat it.
The Skim, the illegal skimming of profits off the top of a casino’s earnings, was commonplace in Las Vegas for decades. The Skim supplied money to the hidden ownership of some casinos – ownership that was most often hidden from regulators. The exhibit illustrates the concept of the count room, and how money could be taken off the top, walked out the door, handed off to couriers and sent to the cities where the hidden crime syndicates were located.
Bringing Down the Mob focuses on wiretapping – one of the most important tools used to effectively investigate and prosecute organized crime cases beginning in the late 1960s.In this highly interactive exhibit, visitors will learn about the technology, listen in on the mob, learn to interpret coded conversations, examine photos and surveillance footage, take part in a weapons training exercise and learn about living a new life in witness protections programs.
Dr. Dennis Barrie, director of cultural and interpretive planning for Westlake Reed Leskosky (WRL), a nationally recognized integrated design and engineering firm headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is serving as creative director for The Mob Museum. He oversees the team responsible for the design and creation of the museum’s immersive and interactive exhibits highlighted by rare artifacts from the mob and law enforcement.
According to Barrie, The Skim exhibit is designed to provide one of the museum’s most memorable settings in which walls will be covered with bills and stacks of money. The exhibit also illustrates how these skim cases were eventually cracked through a number of governmental strategies and new laws.
The contract for exhibit fabrication is expected to be awarded June 2010.
According to Ellen Knowlton, president of 300 Stewart Avenue Corporation, the non-profit board that is working alongside the city of Las Vegas to oversee development and construction of the museum, years of work and planning are coming to fruition as the museum begins to take shape.
“The goal of the museum is to tell the real and full story of organized crime and how law enforcement defeated and continues to battle the mob,” said Knowlton, a 24-year FBI veteran who previously headed up the FBI’s efforts in Las Vegas as the former FBI Special Agent in Charge, Las Vegas Division.
“Given world-wide fascination with organized crime and the world-class team behind the project, the museum is poised to become an important historic destination and tourist attraction in downtown Las Vegas – on par with the city’s other must-see attractions. We are confident it will draw hundreds of thousands of annual visitors to the area. As such, it’s an important part of the city’s downtown redevelopment efforts.”
Core and shell construction are 30 percent complete just seven months following the August 2009
"wall-breaking" by museum board members, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar B. Goodman and former U.S.
Senator, Richard Bryan. Interior demolition and construction preparation work is almost complete and new construction is underway.
An internationally distinguished museum director, cultural historian and an expert in popular culture whose career includes 11 years with the Smithsonian Institution and eight years as the director of the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, Barrie is best known as the co-creator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland and the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. Both are highly compelling, successful and popular museums that are playing major roles in reinvigorating the communities and neighborhoods in which they are located.
According to Barrie, The Mob museum is significant for Las Vegas where older buildings are generally destroyed to make room for new development – not preserved. “The Mob Museum preserves a fascinating chapter of Las Vegas and American history and is located in an historic building that is home to the very courtroom, where, in 1950, the Kefauver Hearings on Organized Crime were held to expose and control organized crime,” he said.
“It’s as if the story of organized crime has come full circle in one of the country’s most fabled cities, within the very building where Congress won its first major victory against the mob, and where alleged mobsters once played a role in shaping the city’s destiny as the ‘Entertainment Capital of the World.’”
The museum is expected to employ 227 individuals during construction and permanently employ approximately 92 people; 52 jobs are directly attributable to its operations and 40 additional jobs throughout the local economy.
Not only will new jobs be created, but downtown as a whole will benefit from this project. The museum is projected to generate a combined economic output of more than $62.3 million during construction and generate annual visitation of hundreds of thousands of tourists to the museum and downtown Las Vegas when it opens in 2011. The museum is projected to generate annual revenues ranging from $8.5 million to $13.9 million during a ten-year study period and a total economic output of approximately $20.2 million during the same ten-year study period. Stated otherwise, for every dollar generated by the museum, nearly $2 will be generated throughout the regional economy. CIM, which owns the former Lady Luck site, also has plans to develop a shopping and entertainment complex around the museum, including a new hotel-casino.
The Mob Museum is expected to cost approximately $42 million to construct and is being funded through local, state and federal grants. Of the total amount, approximately $12.4 million is from general fund sources and $8.3 million is from matching local, state and federal grants that were awarded following the city’s financial commitment from its general fund, as well as a Redevelopment Agency funding source that can only be spent on projects located in the city’s redevelopment area. General funds were allocated for the museum beginning in 2002, prior to the economic downturn.
About The Mob Museum
The Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement – The Mob Museum – is a world-class museum dedicated to the history of organized crime and law enforcement now under development in downtown Las Vegas. The museum will present the real stories and actual events of mob history via interactive and engaging exhibits that reveal all sides of the story, with considerable focus on how law enforcement defeated and continues to battle organized crime. Located at 300 Stewart Avenue, inside an historic and former post office and federal court house, the museum is an important component of the city’s downtown redevelopment now underway and is projected to generate a combined economic output of more than $62.3 million during construction, employ approximately 227 individuals during construction, and generate annual visitation of hundreds of thousands tourists to the museum and downtown Las Vegas when it opens in 2011. The 41,000-square-foot Mob Museum includes approximately 16,800 square feet of exhibition space on three floors in addition to a specialty retail store, special event areas, educational areas and office space. The Mob Museum is expected to cost approximately $42 million to construct and is being funded through local, state and federal grants, in addition to matching grants and Redevelopment Agency funding sources that can only be spent in the city’s redevelopment area. The city of Las Vegas, which is currently overseeing the museum’s early development, owns the building and the land on which it sits. Ellen Knowlton, former FBI Special Agent in Charge, Las Vegas Division, and a 24-year FBI veteran, is president of 300 Stewart Avenue Corporation, a non-profit board formed to oversee the Museum’s development and operations. For more information, visit www.themobmuseum.org.
Editors Note: Images of exhibit designs for Mob Mayhem, Bringing Down the Mob and The Skim are available upon request from Melissa Warren at mwarren@ffwpr.com; 702-528-6016.
