Neon Museum shares more details on $45M expansion, plans for La Concha

The Neon Museum has shared more details on its expansion and plans for the historic La Concha building.

The museum, which displays old neon signs and is dedicated to telling the history of Las Vegas, is doing due diligence to expand to two different sites in the Las Vegas Arts District that could triple the size of the Neon Museum’s operations.

One of the sites would be the top two floors of a proposed parking garage at the corner of Art Way and Boulder Avenue, which is just north of Charleston Boulevard, and the other location will be a short walk away, said Aaron Berger, the executive director of the Neon Museum.

The parking garage will have about 60,000 square feet of outdoor space and 47,000 square feet of indoor space and the second location will have 35,000 square feet of space. Berger didn’t disclose the location of the second location since the Neon Museum is finalizing paperwork to use the site but said it will be close to the parking garage.

The parking garage site will be near the up-and-coming Evel Knievel Museum that is moving to Las Vegas.

Why is it expanding?

Expansion is being pursued since demand has jumped for the Neon Museum’s tickets since it first opened and so the museum can display more of its archives of items, Berger said.

“We have gone from 20,000 visitors to 200,000 visitors in the span that we’ve been open since 2012,” he said. “In that time, we have also had only about 30 to 35 percent of our collection actually on display.”

Berger also said that the Neon Museum has turned away more than 30,000 visitors last year alone due its nightly shows being sold out.

The two expansion sites will have about 60,000 square feet of combined indoor space which can display indoor neon signs, fine art, costumes of old casino shows and other Las Vegas artifacts, which the Neon Museum hasn’t been able to largely display in the past, Berger said.

“The opportunity to have indoor space, we can now start looking at what makes Las Vegas, Las Vegas,” he said. “I’m talking about the story of entertainment. So being able to display costumes … and being able to present archival material, we also have a fine art collection, these are things that the public doesn’t have access to, but we will be able to showcase in the new facility.”

What about the La Concha building?

The Neon Museum broke the news of its expansion on Wednesday but didn’t go into detail on its plans for its historic La Concha building. Berger said the building is “greatest asset” for the Neon Museum and that the building will eventually be moved to one of the expansion sites.

The La Concha building, which is featured in the Neon Museum’s logo, is a shell-shaped building that was designed by acclaimed architect Paul Revere Williams and built in 1961 as a motel lobby on Las Vegas Boulevard, according to the Neon Museum’s website. This building was moved to the current Neon Museum location in 2006 and serves as the visitors’ center.

When will the Neon Museum expand?

The Neon Museum’s current 2.27-acre site won’t be used once the Neon Museum expands, Berger said, but that the current site will remain open as the museum works to expand. Berger hopes to open one or both of the Neon Museum’s expansion sites by 2027.

In total the Neon Museum is planning to raise $45 million to fund the expansion effort and will plan to use government funds, philanthropic gifts as well as corporate and individual donations, Berger said. He said he doesn’t expect it will be too hard to raise funds to expand the museum.

“There are a lot of people who are genuinely concerned about preserving Las Vegas history, and we are the most visited experiences in understanding how this city evolved.” Berger said. “There are a lot of people who are really vested in to making sure that this story continues.”

Contact Sean Hemmersmeier at shemmersmeier@reviewjournal.com. Follow @seanhemmers34 on X.