Confirmed: Neon Museum is Moving Out of Its Crappy Neighborhood

By Scott Roeben, on July 17 2024
3 min read 11 comments
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The Neon Museum is one of the greatest museums in the world, but many visitors have avoided it due to its location in a sketchy neighborhood.

Confirming scoop we shared back in Nov. 2023, Neon Museum is eyeing a new location in what’s referred to as the “Arts District.” Any use of the word “arts” in relation to Las Vegas requires quotation marks. Bless their hearts, they’re trying.

The Neon Museum houses a slew of classic neon signs, many from closed casinos. The new location will be able to accommodate even more, as it will be three times bigger.

If the Neon Museum only had this sign, it would still be one of the greatest museums in the world.

When we got wind of a Neon Museum move last year, no specific new location had been chosen. That’s still the case.

The Neon Museum announced its plans at a Las Vegas City Council meeting, and the details are still a smidge murky.

Originally, it sounded like the Neon Museum was trying to decide between two sites in the Arts District, but now it sounds like they’re moving into both.

One location has a 60,000-square-foot outdoor display space and a 47,000-square-foot indoor area, both in a proposed parking garage on the 9th and 10th floors. The second site is a 35,000-square-foot programmable space a short walk away, the museum said.

Putting the Neon Museum in a parking garage is an odd choice, but it would provide shade for at least part of the exhibit.

The whole indoor/outdoor aspect of the Neon Museum has been a challenge, especially in the context of the recent heat wave in Las Vegas. The museum had to end daytime access due to extreme heat.

Lots of questions about the Neon Museum move remain unanswered. What happens with the La Concha Motel lobby used by the Neon Museum as a reception area?

And what happens to “Brilliant,” the Neon Museum’s must-see projection mapping show?


However this saga progresses, three things are certain: 1) Any location is better than the Neon Museum’s current location, 2) The Neon Museum needs more space (see below), and 3) We shared it first. Neener-neener, Las Vegas Review-Journal.

We are a huge fan of the Neon Museum, despite the fact we got a cease and desist when we took a photo of the site with our drone. That was a different administration, but still.

Here’s more about the Neon Museum. Here’s the official Neon Museum Web site.

The Neon Museum continues to add to its collection, creating unique challenges for the non-profit. Signs are often huge, so a lot of tough decisions have to be made about what can be saved and displayed.

The Neon Museum has more Googie stars than it knows what to do with.

Beyond displaying classic signs, the Neon Museum also occasionally restores and relights them.

Several Flamingo signs (or parts of signs) got the refresh and relighting treatment. The Moulin Rouge sign was relit in Sep. 2020.

Plaza recently had one of its signs lit up following a restoration. Fun fact: The same designer who did the Sassy Sally and Plaza signs, Charles Barnard, also designed Vegas Vickie. You can see his signature on the bottom of Vickie’s boot at Circa.


Moving the Neon Museum to the Arts District will provide some elbow room and a fresh start. The area is a little seedy, but not nearly as seedy as its current location, so that’s something.

More visibility and accessibility means the Neon Museum can continue to do what it does best, preserving Las Vegas history in an utterly unique way.

More details to come, but the future of the Neon Museum appears bright.

Update (7/18/24): Neon Museum officials have clarified some of their plans. Officials say the Neon Museum has turned away 30,000 visitors “due to sold out nights last year alone.” About 35% of the museum’s collection is visible to the public, the rest is kept in storage. Here’s more from the Executive Director of the Neon Museum, who says the expansion will include: “A neon maker’s space, a neon boneyard, classrooms and a visible storage center for new additions to the collection.” The parking lot location is at the corner of Art Way and Boulder Avenue. The La Concha structure will be moved to one of the new locations. The Neon Museum hopes to have one or both of the new locations open by 2027. The museum hopes to raise $45 million for the move and expansion.

Update (8/22/24): On August 22, 2024, the City of Las Vegas shared a rendering of what the Neon Museum might look like in its new location. The Tweet with the rendering was quickly deleted, as was a portion of an accompanying video that had the rendering. Oopsie. It seems the City jumped the gun on sharing the rendering and the Neon Museum wasn’t happy. We’re sharing it for posterity, although the Neon Museum clarified this is a preliminary rendering and the final result could be different.