News
6-17-2010
GRANTS AND AWARDS FOR "MOST ANTICIPATED" MUSEUM IN THE COUNTRY NOW TOTAL MORE THAN $8.3 MILLION
(LAS VEGAS, NV) --- The Las Vegas City Council approved the allocation of $300,000 from the Commission for the Las Vegas Centennial to the Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, aka The Mob Museum, on Wednesday, June 16. Funds for the Commission, a non-profit organization, are generated through the sale of Centennial license plates. The historic federal courthouse and post office that is under renovation to house the Mob Museum, is a legacy project of the Commission.
The latest $300,000 grant brings the total dollar value of grants and gifts awarded to the Mob Museum from a variety of entities to more than $8.3 million. This specific grant is earmarked for the ongoing abatement of materials within the nearly 70-year-old building and its ongoing renovation and restoration.
According to Nancy Deaner, manager of the city of Las Vegas office of cultural affairs, the fact that the museum will be housed inside the city’s most historic building - the former United States Post Office and Court House at 300 Stewart Avenue that was dedicated in1933 as the city’s first federal building - is just one of the reasons for the considerable support and interest the Museum is receiving from local, state and federal historic groups.
“The building itself is as much as part of the Museum as what will be inside,” Deaner said. “The building is also significant for the historic events that occurred there, namely the famed Kefauver hearings that for the first time in America, exposed and attempted control of organized crime.”
According to Robert Jay Chattel, AIA, of Chattel Architecture, Planning & Preservation, Inc., who is serving as the consulting preservation architect on the project, historians often credit the outcome of the Kefauver Committee hearings with cementing Las Vegas as the gaming capital of the country. With the crackdown on illegal gambling and organized crime following the Kefauver Committee hearings, many exiled gambling operators moved their operations to Las Vegas, since Nevada was the only state where gambling was then legal.
In addition to the historic nature of the building, the history of organized crime in America and its role in shaping Las Vegas is the other compelling reason for the project’s popularity with federal, state and local historic commissions, Deaner said. “The mob has become synonymous with Las Vegas, played a pivotal role in the city’s history and continues to influence public perception of our city. The Museum will tell the full story of organized crime from both the mob’s and law enforcement’s perspective. It’s a story that is so fascinating, we get calls and e-mails every day from people from around the world asking about its progress. It’s easily among the most anticipated museums in the world right now.”
To date, the Mob Museum has received more than $8.3 million in grants, including nearly $1.9 in Economic Development Initiative grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; more than $500,000 from Save America’s Treasures from the National Trust for Historic Preservation; more than $5.6 million in Centennial Committee Awards from the Commission for the Las Vegas Centennial; more than $87,000 from the State Historic Preservation Office; a $250,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services; and $200,000 from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
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.
