The is working on a plan to host events as a way to make revenue for the city and get more people acquainted with the 43-year-old facility that houses much of the city’s history.
Tim Nimz, director of library and museum services, said the museum will begin renting out spaces starting next year during the hours of 8 a.m.-5 p.m., starting out slow to see if the plan is feasible.
“That will give us an opportunity to see what traffic patterns are,” Nimz said. “And it gives us an opportunity as a staff to see what works and doesn’t work for facility rentals.”
Nimz said City Manager Michael Penny asked city departments to be creative in coming up with ways they could raise revenue for the city that also would pertain to their regular activities and purpose.
The museum complex sits on 39 acres, which includes the living history farms, a lake, 20 historic buildings and a 42,000-square-foot main building that houses a lecture hall, research hall, four galleries, educational classrooms and a research center.
Nimz said the museum would eventually like to hold weekend events, such as weddings, wedding receptions, family reunions and similar events.
“It’s never going to be enough revenue for the museum to be self-sufficient, but it’s certainly (coming) at a time when the city is looking to augment its revenue stream,” he said.
He said it hasn’t become more expensive to run the museum, but its costs aren’t decreasing, either.
He said officials had in mind holding events when the renovated museum reopened in 2005
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He said officials are still putting together the rate structure while looking at what other museums charge for events.
“We do feel like the facility is nice enough that when people try it out they’ll be impressed,” Nimz said. “Over the next few months we’ll be putting together those rates for what makes sense for Littleton.”
He said they would definitely be offering discounted rates to get people interested as the museum establishes itself as an event venue.
The Littleton City Council recently took a tour of the museum to see what kind of offerings it had for events. Mayor Debbie Brinkman said one issue is that council and city officials go back and forth about charging admission to the museum and how much revenue that might generate.
“What’s kind of fun about it is we have two art displays, classrooms for education and outdoor areas, so it really does provide a unique center for things that are good for the general south metro area,” Brinkman said
Nimz said to prepare for the rental events, the museum would probably need to beef up security measures, including installing security cameras, as well as take care of some infrastructure needs like buying more tables and chairs.
Nimz also said the museum is looking to hold more events to attract the young professional crowd, which is growing as more high-density residential developments come on line in Littleton. He said the museum attracts about 135,000 people a year but they’re mostly children and seniors. Officials would like to attract more people in the 25- to 44-year-old demographic.
Clayton Woullard: 303-954-2671, cwoullard@denverpost.com or
