New California wine museum learns from mistakes of the past
by Jason Holland | 15 Apr 2014
The California Wine Museum hopes to attract 50,000 visitors a year / Shutterstock
A planned 15,000sq ft (1,394sq m) wine museum in California is aiming to uncork in summer 2015 – but must first raise $3-4m (€2.17-2.9m, £1.8-2.4m) in order to launch.
The California Wine Museum would occupy the basement of a former AT&T telephone switching building in Santa Rosa, California. TLCD Architecture is behind the museum as well as renovation work on the building, which is scheduled to be completed by early 2015.
The museum, which would have 5,000sq ft (465sq m) of exhibition space, aims to show the history, artistry, science and technology behind the process of growing grapes and transforming them into a vintage.
However, potential investors in the project may be put off by the recent tale of a visitor attraction in the region that had similar aims. Copia, The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts in Napa, California closed in 2008 after only seven years. The project was heavily leveraged, and a target of 300,000 visitors a year ultimately proved to be too optimistic. Bankruptcy was the result.
The California Wine Museum is much smaller in scope and scale, with 50,000 visitors a year projected, and is a non-profit venture. It expects to generate revenue from a tasting room, memberships and naming rights to cover museum expenses.
As well as the 2,000sq ft (186sq m) tasting room, which would feature a rotating list of 40–60 wines on tap and 10-20 by the bottle, the museum would provide interactive demonstrations.
The visitor attraction would also include a 60-seat cinema, meeting rooms, a wine library and bookstore, and a commercial kitchen.
The museum has already raised $1m (€724,425, £598,906) from the gift of the museum space by Hugh Futrell Corp, the building’s redeveloper and general contractor. It is also hoping to raise $750,000 (€543,318, £449,179) to acquire 4,500 items from California’s viticultural and oenological history from antiques dealer John McCormick.
A planned 15,000sq ft (1,394sq m) wine museum in California is aiming to uncork in summer 2015 – but must first raise $3-4m (€2.17-2.9m, £1.8-2.4m) in order to launch. The California Wine Museum would occupy the basement of a former AT&T telephone switching building in Santa Rosa, California. TLCD Architecture is behind the museum as well as renovation work on the building, which is scheduled to be completed by early
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