Three New Vegas Sites Contend to House Relocated Neon Museum

• Downtown Las Vegas’ Plaza Hotel and an undisclosed Boyd-owned Casino are among the three sites now in contention to house a relocated Neon Museum
• Plans announced last year to relocate to the two top floors of a newly constructed parking garage have been scrapped

Three sites in downtown Las Vegas are now in contention to become the new home of the Neon Museum, the gallery dedicated to preserving and showcasing the most iconic casino signs from Las Vegas’ past.

They are the Downtown Events Center, owned by casino mogul Derek Stevens, the Plaza Hotel & Casino, owned by the Tamares Group and run by CEO Jonathan Jossel, and an undisclosed property owned by Boyd Gaming, which has several in downtown Las Vegas.

The sites were revealed this week by Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley

“They’ve made their proposals, and I think hopefully, in very short order, the Neon Museum will pull the trigger, make a decision of who they’re going to partner with, and we can move forward,” she said Wednesday, as quoted by KLAS-TV/Las Vegas.

Times of the Signs

The nonprofit museum — highlighted by the outdoor Neon Boneyard, featuring restored and unrestored signs tracing Las Vegas’ cultural and design evolution — has outgrown its current 2.27 acres on Las Vegas Boulevard north of Fremont Street.

With all the iconic Las Vegas casinos being demolished by their new owners, it was bound to happen.

The limited capacity allows it to display only about 35% of its collection — about 275 signs out of 700. In addition, the museum now draws 200K visitors a year — about 10 times as many as when it was founded in 1996 — and must turn away about 30K guests a year for being sold out.

“It’s just great,” Berkeley said, “and it will be even greater when it’s in a new location.”

Last year, the top two contenders were announced by the museum as the two top floors of a newly constructed parking garage at the corner of Art Way and Boulder Avenue, and an undisclosed location sporting 35K square feet of programmable space.

The parking lot has since fallen out of contention.

The museum plans to raise $45 million for its move from government funding and philanthropic gifts.