Who will Acquire the Newseum Building in Arlington?
Will Arlington Virginia real estate owners, and renters alike be able to enjoy a new museum in their city? The old Newseum building which has been vacant for five years besides for housing the occasional show, may be the home to a new art venue. George Parr one of the counties commercial development specialist believes that this site will be perfect for any type of visual arts. It has been speculated that this building may have been vacant for 5 years since it was being marketed as a for profit development at the commercial rates. It was not until the Newseum building was purchased by Monday Properties, an Arlington based developer, in a deal that the county would allow the firm to build a 30 story building on a site adjacent to this vacant building. The space that Monday Properties has acquired is valued roughly at $6.9 million over the next 10 years
Some residents of Arlington County hope that this space will become a home to a cultural or arts site. The Newseum building located in Rosslyn has 53,800 SF of space, and it has been used as both, an exhibit hall, and news museum that was operated by the Freedom Forum. The museum was in this location from 1997 to 2002. The Fabulous new Newseum should be opening its doors in the next few months on Pennsylvania Avenue location.
The Newseum's original location is starting to attract different organizations such as Museums, cultural arts organizations, and specialty exhibitions. Art enthusiasts are excited at the possibility of a performing arts center coming to Arlington County. There has been talk in Arlington's art world that the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC, is thinking of taking the space for an expansion. This has just been a rumor since when reporters talked with one of the Corcoran spokeswoman she declined to comment on this issue. Carol Lynn Alpert, the director of strategic projects at Boston's museum of science said, another possibility for the space is to use it as a forum that the public would be able to use to discover new directions in science, engineering and technology, with different experts from all fields of science. This idea is not the first of its kind it is currently in use at the Darwin Centre located at the National History Museum in London, and at the current Science and Technology Center at Boston's Museum of Science.
