If a deal is reached for the South Brand building, it would be the third move recently for the museum, which was founded in 1981 as a nonprofit that offers educational classes alongside changing exhibitions of contemporary and vintage neon art and photographs.
Museum officials began the search for a new permanent location in the late 1990s when they learned their West Los Angeles lease would expire in 2007, said Executive Director Kim Koga.
Dozens of potential spaces were vetted and more than a year was spent negotiating with Los Angeles, but when that option fell through, the museum was forced to find a temporary location.
Glendale officials were only too happy to step in.
“We have seen their need for a permanent location, so contact was made with them,” said Development Services Director Phillip Lanzafame.
Glendale’s accessibility to residents from around the Los Angeles area was a selling point, Koga said.
“Our members and the people who like us come from everywhere,” she said. “The people that are interested in our museum will probably come and visit us wherever we are.”
City officials say the museum would bring badly needed cultural prestige to a city known more for its commercial attractions and mature neighborhoods, and have the added benefit of drawing outside visitors to the downtown business district.
“We’ve been a very practical city, which is wonderful, but I think we need a civic expression of our interest in the arts as well,” said Councilman John Drayman, a key figure in luring the museum to Glendale.
It would be Glendale’s first museum away from those attached to Forest Lawn Memorial Park Glendale and other historical sites.
City officials envision that bringing the museum to the downtown redevelopment area would help create a connection between the downtown area’s commercial and civic components.
When Drayman approached city officials about bringing the museum to the city, the Rite Aid building was one of two slated to be demolished to make way for a proposed paseo linking the Central Park and larger civic campus to brand Boulevard and the Americana across the way.
To accommodate the museum, officials have since narrowed the planned paseo from 100 feet to 50 feet wide to allow the former Rite Aid building to remain.
While no time frame for the move has been set, if it is approved, Drayman said he expects the process to begin within the next six to eight months.
“I believe it will become the focal point and the beginning of other types of exhibit and museum space, being made available and being sought after in the larger community as a whole,” he said.
