Mesa approves $300M Arizona Museum of Natural History redevelopment roadmap with two-year planning phase

Well, it wasn't 7:30 yet. Okay, now it is. All right. Good morning. Before we begin this council study session, we have three community facility district board meetings to begin with. We'll begin with the Cadence CFD board meeting. Board members Heredia and Duff are absent and are excused. Board member Taylor is participating by Zoom. Otherwise, all other board members are present. Ms. Mosley, are there any blue cards from citizen present? No, Mayor. There are not. Okay.

Item two is the approval of prior minutes. Is there a motion So moved. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Ms. Goforth, all in favor say I. I. I. Ms. Taylor. I. Sorry, I was on mute. Didn't realize it. Okay. Motion passes unanimously. Um item three is to approve the Cadence CFD fiscal year 2026 to 2027 tentative budget and setting May 21st, 2026 as the date for the public hearing and action on the final budget and tax levy. Ms. Mosley, does anyone in the public wish to speak on this item? Uh no, Mayor.

Okay, thank you. Do any board members wish to speak? Okay, hearing none. Is there a motion to approve this item? So moved. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Adams. All in favor say I. I. I. I. Thank you. That motion passes unanimously. Is there a motion to adjourn this board meeting? So moved. Thank you, Mr. Adams. Ms. Goforth, all in favor say I. I. I. I. That passes unanimously. Next, we'll move over and convene the Eastmark CFD number one board meeting. Again, board members Mr.

Heredia and Ms. Duff are absent and are excused. Board member Taylor is participating by Zoom. Otherwise, all other board members are present. Ms. Mosley, are there any blue cards from citizen present? Um I did not receive any blue cards, but you received the online list of comments. We received emails, 49 emails, regarding this in support of In support of? Yes. Thank you. You would any comments on that? No, 49 comments in support. This is excellent.

I think that's the first time we've had something like that. Yeah, that's great. Well, it's a it's a tax cut, so that's really nice. Yeah. Mhm. All right, item two is the approval of prior minutes. Is there a motion to that? So moved. Thank you, Mr. Adams, Vice Mayor. All in favor say I. I. I. I. Okay, that motion passes unanimously.

Item three is to approve the Eastmark Community Facilities District number one fiscal year 2026-27 tentative budget, and again setting May 21st, 2026 the date for the public hearing and action on the final budget and tax levy. Ms. Mosley, does anyone wish to speak on this topic? Subject? Okay, thank you. Do any board members wish to address it? Okay. Hearing none, is there a motion to approve this item? So moved. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Ms. Goforth. All in favor say I. I. I. I.

Motion passes unanimously. Is there a motion to adjourn this board meeting? I'll move to adjourn. Thank you, Mr. Adams, Vice Mayor. All in favor say I. I. I. All right. Next, we'll convene the Eastmark CFD number two board meeting. Again, board members Mr. Heredia and Ms. Duff are absent and are excused. Again, board member Taylor's participating by Zoom. All other board members are present. Ms. Mosley, are there any blue cards from citizen present? No requests. Okay, got it.

Again, item two is the approval of prior minutes. Is there a motion to that effect? Thank you, Mr. Adams, Ms. Goforth. All in favor say I. I. I. I. Okay, that motion passes unanimously. Item three is to approve the Eastmark CFD number two fiscal year 2026-27 tentative budget and setting May 21st, as the date for the public hearing and action on the final budget and tax levy. Ms. Mosley, does anyone in the public want to speak on this item? No, Mayor. Thank you.

Do any board members wish to address? Okay, hearing none, is there a motion to approve this item? So moved. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Ms. Goforth. All of uh this uh go ahead with the motion. All in favor say I. I. I. I. That motion passes unanimously. Again, is there a motion to adjourn this board meeting? Thank you, Mr. Adams, Vice Mayor. All in favor say I. I. I. I. All right, that motion passes unanimously. Mr. Smith, are we good to go? Okay. All right, thank you, Ms. Taylor.

We're going to move on now to convene the Mesa City Council study session. Any of those who wish to leave you're welcome to if you attended the CFD part. Again, Council members are ready and and Ms. Duff are absent and are excused with Council member Taylor participating by Zoom. Other than that, all all other members of the Council are present. Item 1A is a presentation of prior direction on the Arizona Museum of Natural History economic redevelopment project. So, will the team come forward?

Louise, Simone. GNA Gensler and Associates. Did I get it close? Oh, good morning, Mayor and Council. My name is Louise Ruiz. I am the director of arts and culture for the city of Mesa. I want to begin by saying that this is my first presentation to Council as Mesa's director of arts and culture, and I'm truly excited to be here with you today. I'm especially grateful for the that this first presentation gives me the opportunity to discuss one of Mesa's most important cultural assets.

And to do so in the context of the broader broader work ahead. So to guide through the conversation, today's agenda will begin with an executive summary and introduction of the project followed by four major areas of discussion. Those are return on investment and impact, community engagement, architecture and experience design, and funding models, more importantly. So I'm especially excited that this presentation connects directly to the purpose statement of the department.

And this is something I worked on very shortly after starting here through the purpose statement and the KPI development. So let me read this for you and for the audience. So the arts and culture department exists to connect the public with dynamic enriching experiences while stewarding community spaces and assets to strengthen Mesa's cultural vibrancy and economic vitality, advancing the city's vision of a thriving and prosperous community.

That purpose is important today because the Arizona Museum of Natural History is one of Mesa's most significant cultural assets. It is a place of learning, discovery, memory, and community identity. It is also a public asset with extraordinary potential. The project is also within the larger story of the downtown Mesa and the future of downtown's Arts and Innovation district.

As the district continues to take shape, it has a potential to bring together arts, culture, education, entrepreneurship, civic life, and public spaces in a way that makes downtown Mesa one of the Valley's most distinctive places. In that context, the Arizona Museum of Natural History can help anchor the district, connect more residents and visitors to downtown, support surrounding business and businesses and public spaces, and contribute to a stronger sense of place.

Today is about beginning the larger conversation with Council. We are here to frame the opportunity, share the work completed to date, and begin discussing how the project can strengthen Mesa culturally, economically, educationally, and civically. So, now I'm going to turn it over to Simon, who's going to talk about the project of vision and what what we have done to get to this place. Thank you so much. Mr. Freeman, Council, it's great to be back on the dais, and there is no submarine.

Uh for anyone who doesn't know me, I'm Simon Tipping Addlem, the director of the Arizona Museum of Natural History. So, our vision is to build something that is deeply Mesa, undeniably Arizonan, and globally significant. Our Our museum serves as a hub of discovery, discourse, and positive action, while functioning as a very high-performing city-owned asset. So, this is not a typical museum. I think we all know that. It's beloved, but it's not a typical museum.

We envision the AZMNH as civic infrastructure, a place where science, education, stewardship, economic development, and community connection come together stronger for our communities and make our communities healthier. Over the past 3 years, we've demonstrated that our model business model works. Post COVID, we're up 90,000 from to 175,000. We We We increased our operational budget and support and thanks to the council from 1.4 million to 2.4 million over the past 3 years.

As well as through the the Arizona Museum Foundation, we've had over 2.6 million of contributed or earned income, meaning our our community supports a lot of our work. As the work that you're seeing today, which represents the public-private split between the city and the foundation. Now, another thing and I'm always going I always go on about performance, but we roughly have a a cost recovery rate of around 70 to 80%. That's outstanding in government.

So, we've already proven that we are we are beloved and we've already proven that we run our business incredibly well, but we could always do it better. As the Arizona Museum of Natural History Museum of Science in the United States, Mesa has a unique opportunity to lead nationally with our stories, our science, our heritage, and landscapes of the region.

Resilient desert systems, indigenous histories, huge geological change, pioneering founders, and one of the world's longest continuous human settlement in the world. That is something that we own globally. So, I'm going to finish it up here. At its core, this vision is about our our legacy, our stewardship, and our civic pride. This does become your legacy, our legacy, and our community's legacy as we move forward.

This assures that for future generations, they inherit an infrastructure and an institution that remains uniquely, unmistakably Mesa. So, what does this vision look like? I'll make this a lot shorter than what I what I just said. Arizona's history is the world history. A year ago we said we globally we own IP or science and research that no one else has. Which is basically the continued human human settlement. No one else on the planet has that.

As well as really big geological markers in time and change that really changed North America. Now, the last thing I'm going to say is this is not a typical museum. What you're going to see is globally groundbreaking. It is incredibly unique as a self-sustaining economic engine. That's what we're looking at here. It is going to inspire our residents and future generations. It's going to drive visitation, private investment, and importantly for future generations, job creation and work pathways.

So, with that, I think Thank you, Simon. So, before we go any further into the presentation, I want to acknowledge the team that has helped bring this work to this point. The project has required required a highly collaborative approach bringing together national expertise, local leadership, city staff, um and a a lot of credit goes to the AZMNH staff, a and community voices including as Simon mentioned the foundation.

We have been fortunate to work with several consulting partners each bringing a distinct area of expertise to the planning process. With us today you'll hear from Gallagher & Associates, which is an an internationally recognized experience design firm that creates impactful story-driven visitor environments by blending physical and digital media.

From G&A, we are joined by Claire Brown, executive creative director, who brings 28 years of experience leading creative direction for cultural projects and large-scale museum institutions across the United States, and Spencer Downing, the manager feasibility for G&A's strategy and consulting team, who brings nearly 9 years of experience helping shape financial, operational, audience strategy for natural museums and cultural projects across the country.

I'll also be joined by Jones Studio, which is a Tempe based award-winning architecture, interior design, and planning firm known for creating resilient place-based design.

For over four decades, the firm has focused on thoughtful, community-centered work that connects the built and natural environment, and we are joined by Brian Farling, AIA AIA, and principal and co-owner of Jones Studios, whose award-winning work has uh focuses on civic and educational projects rooted in place-based, sustainable solutions. Thank you for hitting that slide, by the way.

And then finally by the Benefactor Group, which is a nonprofit consulting firm that partners with mission-driven organizations to strengthen fund raising strategy and long-term sustainability. We are joined by Laura McDonald, a philanthropic leader and certified fundraising executive with nearly 30 years of experience, including service as board chair of the Giving USA Foundation and the founder of the Benefactor Group.

I want to also state that we have worked closely with the city's office of economic development and Jeff O'Donnell, whose perspective has been important in understanding how this project can support Mesa's broader economic development goals, as well as we've benefited benefiting from the leadership and insight of Jeff McVay Jeff McVay in the office of urban transformation, particularly as we think about the museum's role in the downtown, placemaking, mobility, and long-term urban vitality.

So, from here our consulting partners will walk council through the analysis, concepts, planning, and investment return on investment and impact, community engagement, architectural experience and design, and funding models. Our goal today is not to present every final answer, but to provide a clear and thoughtful framework for the conversations ahead.

This is an important This is an opportunity for us to consider how a major cultural institute can serve Mesa's residents, strengthen downtown, and contribute to the city's broader vision of for a thriving and prosperous community. So, with that, we'll turn it over to our consultants, and Claire, thank you. Thank you, Louise. Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members.

So, the questions that we will address today, um, include why invest in a world-class natural history museum here in Mesa, Arizona. And with that, we're going to have Spencer talking with us about the return on investment and impact, and how we plan for success with that. We're also going to talk about how we understand the potential social and economic returns of a project like this one.

And we're going to do that by looking at market research and the community engagement that has informed our planning process. We're also going to look at what is possible for the Museum of Natural History by looking at amazing visualizations. I can't wait to get to that. Amazing visualizations of what the future might hold for this institution.

And lastly, we're going to look at how the museum, uh, will realize this vision by talking with Laura McDonald about the potential funding models to make this happen. So, just a brief overview on the work that we've done to date.

So, though we GNA and Jones Studio came together to support the museum's development process, um, immediately after the strategic plan was completed, and we embarked on a master planning process to understand the long-term vision and to establish the direction for the project as a whole.

We included community engagement and audience research, which validated the demand for this new building, and it also reinforced the fact that there is strong community participation and love for this institution. We also completed market analysis and demand projections, which revealed that this holds the potential to be a distinct world-class concept for a new museum.

And lastly, we also completed visitor experience and interpretive, which is storytelling, interpretive framework to shape how the storytelling within the museum will play out. And this we revealed would become a phased approach aligned with the funding strategy. So in this current phase of work, there have been many work streams. We've all been working in conjunction, and it has yielded a really, hopefully you will find as well, a holistic concept for how this project will move forward.

You can see that we've done architectural programming, community engagement. We've completed 50% design of the museum, as well as as visitor experience planning, and all of that leading to today. So thank you for having us. So I'm going to turn it over now to Spencer to go through our return on investment and impact. Thanks, Claire, and thank you, Mayor and Council, for the opportunity for us to speak today.

Before we get started, I want to just take a brief second to talk about how we approach this project, which is the way we've approached all of our projects, which is maximizing ROI squared. And what we mean by that is we want to get two returns out of this project. A return on investment and also a return on impact. And as a city-owned museum, this project has a unique opportunity to leverage AG and MH as a city asset to deliver a return on investment beyond just a museum and to all of Mesa.

So, looking at where AZMNH is at today, AZMNH has the brand potential, the market, and the audience to be a top valley attraction. It is in the fastest growing uh residential market in the country, one of the fastest growing tourism markets in the country, and the fastest growing STEM economy in the country. It is the largest city-owned natural history museum in the country, and the only s- uh city-owned natural history museum that carries the brand of an entire state.

But, currently, the building and the revenue model are holding the museum back from truly maximizing the return on this project's investment. The 66,000 square foot building is not fit for purpose, and has capped the museum's ability to grow visitation, revenue, and impact. As a result, today, the museum brings in 175,000 visitors per year. That only represents points just over 0.7% of the valley's total potential audience.

And when we benchmark that against other natural history museums and science centers, that ranks about 25th out of 30 of peers that we looked at across the country. Part of that is that we only bring in about 10% of our audience are tourists, uh which is way below what you'd expect for a typical natural history museum. And as Simon said, we believe this is more than just a typical natural history museum.

So, while there is undeniably an opportunity here, the business uh model, and the revenue model, and the building uh need to advance in order for us to realize that opportunity. The way we do that is in four pieces. One, we need a revenue model that is fit for this market and the opportunity the valley provides, and one that can compete with the growing experiential economy of the valley. Second, we need to be an economic activator.

That means driving new visitation to the museum, but then driving those visitors out to other areas of Mesa, to Main Street, to be patrons of Mesa businesses, retail, and restaurants. And that's how we start getting a return on investment beyond just the museum walls. We need to be a catalyst and a for private investment. This project will be an anchor and a demand generator of downtown Mesa, and we believe that will drive further investment into the museum as well as the area around the museum.

And last, we need to make sure that we are aligned in providing the citizens and residents of Mesa with a cultural asset that aligns with their needs for today and the future. And that starts with the building itself. Last year, we showed that the building currently lacks the amenities and visitor amenities and revenue generating spaces that are needed to maximize the return on investment.

Those spaces are things like private event space, food and beverage amenities, a gift shop that is optimized to capture a greater share of retail, classroom and program spaces, and staff and support spaces. The museum actually has adequate exhibit space as it stands right now. But at just 66,000 square feet and not built for purpose, a new building is necessary in order to retain that exhibit space while adding those revenue generating spaces.

So, what we presented last year was a building that was right-sized and adequately distributed that came out to be about 118,000 square feet. Today, we still believe that building at 118,000 square feet is the right size for this project. But when we think about how do we get the maximum return on investment for this project, we want to look at what else this can be.

And that's why we believe that AZMNH in the future AZMNH can be positioned as a cult of the anchor to a cultural mixed-use development. That through a public-private partnership the museum can generate uh and drive commercial investment into much-needed hotel space rooms, one-of-a-kind restaurant, and commercial spaces, retail offerings, and drive greater demand and visitation to Mesa than just the museum could on its own.

So, as you see on the breakdown of this the future AZMNH on the the right, we have a 118,000 sq ft building fit for this market, plus 170,000 sq ft of commercial mixed-use space, including hotel, retail, F&B, and outdoor spaces. And we believe by designing the building in the future AZMNH this way, we can meet the needs of the audience that we have in the valley today and in the future.

And we can that will do is allow us to take AZMNH today, which is a museum in a big market, but captures a relatively low percentage of its total potential audience, and transform it to be a museum that captures that is in a big market and captures a greater share of that total potential audience. And we believe the potential and the upside is even greater than what we project here.

If we look at the peer group, uh that range for museums of this size and markets of this size, the average is about 515,000 annual visitors. And top-performing institution gets about 630,000 visitors. And we believe that the future museum will be competitive with those natural history museums across the country. But again, we're getting the maximum return on investment means more than just driving museum visitors.

It's about driving visitors to Mesa for all of the facility, like the hotel, the commercial spaces, the F&B space, the retail space. It's about increasing the economic impact of this museum, which we believe could increase the arts and culture sector economic impact by three to four times the amount it is today. And it's about increasing cost recovery for the city of Mesa by adding more earned revenue sources and creating more efficient and a more efficient operating model.

But it also goes beyond just these facts and figures and what can be quantified. It's the quality of life that comes with having a world-class cultural amenity. It's the ability to showcase all of what Mesa can be to future residents and to future corporate groups who are looking to relocate to the valley. We believe and and this museum will be the first stop that Jay and Jeff and Mayor that you take prospective corporate groups on tours when they're looking to relocate.

And this is important and matters cuz we want those groups we want those corporations to relocate here. We want those jobs and we want the tax revenue.

But it's really important because it's the first step in developing high-impact partnerships that will allow us to create a direct pipeline from this museum and the students that it will serve and educate and inspire and create a pipeline to the future scientists, engineers, and workforce of the valley's STEM economy today and of the future as those jobs become more and more in demand. So where does this start and how do we know that these outcomes are possible?

Well, it starts with looking at the market. We are in a market that is it has a very active, engaged uh tourism base. These tourists are uh participating in things like cultural, entertainment uh shopping, nightlife activities that are at a greater rate than the average market in the United States. And the future AZMNH is positioned to serve these audience groups. But what's important is that we need to provide an experience that is compelling and that meets these tourists where they're at.

It delivers something that they are coming to the valley to do and that what they expect out of their trip. And we again we believe that this future museum will do that. And by doing that we will increase Mesa's ability to capture that tourist tourism spending and put us in a position to capture more tourism spending than ever before. And all we need to do is look at the experiential economy across the valley to see that there is a return on this investment.

Over $8 billion has been invested or is being invested in projects in the experiential economy across the valley. And some of those as you know are happening right here in Mesa. But there is a opportunity with this project specifically to create an anchor in the downtown core of Mesa that will drive greater visitation to Mesa and create longer trips for those tourists who are already here. Cultural tourists spend on average nearly 40% more per day and stay 22% longer than the average tourist.

So we want to make sure that we are capturing those tourists at the greatest percentage possible. The other way we do this is by I want to change that one. Can Can I ask a quick question? Yes. Interrupt. Back on the previous slide, can you just give me a couple of examples of entertainment? Is that right? And uh for the spending? Yeah. So that would be um anything that would be performance venues. It would be uh Spring training. Uh spring training.

Well, that that would probably fall under sporting. Oh, okay. But uh it could be performances, concerts, um things that are um like uh the uh the Gateway um over in Glendale is it uh Gateway in Glendale? Um And And really what we're looking at is anything that's consuming time that peo- these visitor these tourists are taking time and and choosing where to spend that time. Okay. Thank you.

So, you know, it's it's things that fall under um you know, that that free time that they are actively participating in these activities. Um so, going back to uh the other ways that we we realize this vision, we sit at the center of the fastest growing STEM economy in the country. And we have barely scratched the surface of what the potential partnerships uh we can have with uh uh the private sector here.

And we believe that Mesa or this museum can be that connective tissue in creating high-impact partnerships between Mesa, the private sector, and this museum to increase the return on investment and outcomes for all. And we see that and we see this strategy executed elsewhere in the country at high-performing natural history museums.

One of those being the Houston Museum of Natural History, which is an anchor itself in a cultural district called the Museum District, which has driven private investment into that district that has followed that cultural investment into residential, commercial, and hospitality developments.

Specifically, though, I want to talk about the Wiess Energy Hall Gallery, which was a 30,000-sq-ft $40-million project that was funded virtually or funded by virtually every major Houston-based energy company in the market.

And what that project did was a was a showcase for the energy economy in Houston that entertained and educated guests, but also provided the industry that funded it a place where they can host workforce development opportunities, networking events, industry events, and help build a pipeline uh for future workforce in that energy economy.

So, we can imagine how AZMNH can leverage the same type of partnership to create greater outcomes, to create greater workforce development opportunities, and to create a greater return on investment for this project. The last thing I want to talk about, and that Laura McDonald's going to talk about in much greater detail later in this presentation, is the opportunity for philanthropic support.

Currently, the museum uh does not The museum's business model is not very reliant on philanthropic and contributed revenue support. Last year, I believe it had $570,000 in contributed revenues, but if we look at the rest of the valley, that average was $7.8 million in contributed revenues. So, and that's not just in the valley, that's across the country.

So, if we really want to maximize our return on investment, we need to tap in to this revenue source that every other museum in the country is utilizing. So, along with uh prioritizing more earned revenue and new earned revenue, we also want to make sure that we're prioritizing contributed income.

We believe that the foundation is poised to help take this on with this transformational project as our business model evolves to become more uh diversified and to include more contributed revenue opportunities. So, all of this is how investing in this project returns a maximum return on investment and impact, and elevates all of Mesa. And again, it's because of these four things that we set out to do.

We want to be an economic activator that push takes in new demand and pushes it outward to the rest of Mesa. So, we're not just thinking about the museum and its visitors, we're thinking about the 500-person wedding that will be hosted at the museum that's going to let out at 10:30 at night on a Friday or Saturday or Friday. And all those people going out to a lively and thriving Main Street Mesa nightlife and bar scene.

We want to think about the private event spaces, the F&B, the dining experiences, the rooftop restaurant with views to Mesa that you can only get at this museum. We want to think about how to be a catalyst for investment, driving new private investment into Mesa both as part of this project where the museum will be the anchor to this mixed-use development as well as the area surrounding the museum.

The same way that the MAC Center was able to unlock 20 years of private investment when it was when it opened 20 years ago. And that's by being a demand generator and being an anchor to downtown Mesa. We want to be a tourism multiplier that takes half-days visitors to full-day visitors and full-day visitors to overnight visitors. This project is not going to be successful just because it drives new visitors to the museum.

It will be successful because it's going to drive new visitors to the museum who then leave the museum, go to lunch on Main Street, go shopping in Mesa, experience Mesa nightlife, and then come back to the museum at night to spend the night at the hotel. And there's other ways this will happen as well.

If we think about what this new hotel and this new world-class cultural attraction brings, you can think about how being able to have a cocktail hour offsite event for a convention group at the museum could be the thing that tips a convention group from choosing Mesa compared to any other city. And this is going to be what allows us to again generate the maximum return on investment. Lastly, we do this by taking advantage of the Mesa moment we have right now.

As we talked about earlier, the experiential economy is growing with the rest of the valley and that economy, experiential economy and investment is not going to stop. So the time is now for us to take advantage of the opportunity and and ensure that we remain or we become a top visited cultural attraction in the valley and a world-class natural natural history museum not only in the country but globally.

So what something that is recognized as a world-class institution and it becomes synonymous with uh what a cultural attraction can be when public and private investment work together to increase outcomes for all. And if we do that, we will uh maximize the return on investment and the return on impact of that project of this project. But all of this is contingent on two things.

One, delivering a world-class experience and two, ensuring that we are aligned with the desires and the wants of the residents who helped fund this museum. So at this point I'm going to turn it over to Claire and she's going to talk about community engagement and what the future of this museum will be. Claire, before you start, Ms. Taylor, do you have any questions? Sorry, I was trying to unmute.

Um no, I not at the I mean I do but I'm just I wanted the I want the presentation to go through before I ask any questions. They might be answered along the way. Thank you. Thank you. Spence, I want to circle back to one question on slide 16. You talked about the ranking of 25th out of 30 peers. Uh tell me more about that because is that within the valley here as an experience or is that nationwide?

So that's nationwide and what we're looking at when we think about capture rate is we want to look at the total resident market and the total tourist market for each of these museums that we're looking at in the peer group and that combined becomes your total potential audience. How many tourists and residents do we have to potentially capture from? And when we look at attendance and what percentage of that total potential audience these museums are capturing from, we get this capture rate.

So, when we look at these 30 peer museums across the country, these are STEM-based museums, science centers, natural history museums, we rank 25th out of 30 in terms of what percentage of our total potential audience we are capturing. So, towards the So, my question would be why do we rank 25th?

Uh we rank 25th because we are in a building that is not fit for the purpose of the, you know, not fit for purpose, does not have the amenities that a visitor has come to expect in today's cultural landscape and experiential landscape. Um and we do not have the business model right now to really leverage a uh or to to really maximize our return. You know, we don't have those private event spaces. We don't have those um those amenities that guests are expecting.

So, I'd say the branding that we need is not there right now. The uh the branding of the museum. Uh well, the I think the the brand is incredible. The brand is there, but still the experience of it having the experience in the museum is really under performing. Correct. We have the brand, we have the market potentially, we have the audience potentially. to the workforce there. I didn't mean that you're under performing.

I think the whole museum experience, just so you understand, don't get it twisted. It's just the experience you're having today. Right. And as Simon said, the with cost recovery, with the surveys we've seen with the community, the museum does very well with the situation it's in, with this building. But it's it's not going to be able to truly maximize visitation and revenue and become a top performing institution when it's in a building that is capping its ability to do that. Okay.

All right, thank you. Miss Crawford. On slide I think it's 26 the one about philanthropic support. So tell me about the foundation. And and its support. So it's not that's the only support we got. Is that what you're talking about? Correct. And the found as I said the current business model operating model does not because as a municipal museum has not been around contributed revenues.

It's been around gate admissions and that earned revenue stream and then the city funding that helps supplement that. So it just it hasn't been a prior it hasn't been the directive. But as we expand and transform the museum the the foundation is poised to transform with it to expand its its capacity to generate contributions on an operating basis. That the current contributed income though does come from the foundation. We are getting some Yes. Yes. Because Simon talked about it. I mean Right.

And you're getting contributions that aren't necessarily going towards operating operating purposes. These are we're talking about in this in this case operating the operating budget. So that is not as big of a piece of our operating budget as it could be and that it is in other museums. And is there a reason that it I mean why why hasn't it been? I'm just Is there a reason that it that currently you can't do that? Well I I think that this project is positioned to allow us to do that.

And I think just historically the operating models in a municipal museum has not maybe required it necessarily. But when we think about transforming the museum we want to make that a bigger piece of what the operating model is. Okay. Mr. Adams has a question. Yes, thank you Mayor. Um you know I'm going to be very careful this morning to make no reference to anything that sounds like Simon says. I I throw that out there because we come close to it. So, um I'm uh It's your say.

I I appreciate all the data that has been presented so far. And maybe you're going to cover this later, but I'm assuming that um at some point we'll receive some additional information on um institutions in other cities, other locations, where these types of transformations have in fact worked. Uh hard facts that demonstrate that what we're talking about here is not just hypothetical. But uh so is Am I correct in that assumption that we can point to, well, here in Cleveland we did this.

Here in uh Atlanta we did this cuz I'm Okay, I'm glad to hear that. I'm hoping that we have that and I assumed we had that. Um so, that that's we can drill down into that later, but uh so basically what what you're saying is this is this is fact-based. This can be supported by real-life examples where these investments, these changes, these modifications have been made and and tried and they've been successful. Uh Mayor, Council, uh absolutely.

So, later in this presentation we'll have some case studies that are real-world examples of this, but there are countless examples of this on projects we've worked with and across the country where we've had transformational projects with hybrid uh partnership models, and you know, these are actively happening and we have great um data to look at to see how it's happened. Good. Well, I jumped the gun a little bit there. You've got that coming later. So, So, you.

I think we're moving over to Claire. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. Um Let me adjust this. Here we go. Um So, as we all know, it's incredibly important to have these data points and all of this extensive market research. Um what we also have to support this is a great effort in community engagement that has happened over the last 6 months. And this helps us to understand uh the community's needs and motivations aligned with these financial and economic needs and motivations.

And so, during this last phase, um we built upon the master plan work um by engaging 650 people through two surveys and one in-person event. Um the the insights that we gained from these were really revealing. Um I think the most important takeaway is that AZMNH has a very strong and loyal following, loyal audience. People love AZMNH.

Um as we talked further with them and through their survey responses, we also learned that visitors want more adult-focused programming while maintaining the um offerings that we have for children. And so, in order for this institution to um have a multi-generational impact over many, many decades, the institution needs to be offering um events and programming and spaces that feel comfortable to visitors across their whole lifespan, not just until they turn 13.

You know, we need to be able to have young adults coming in extremely excited about this institution. We also want to create a space for a date night or maybe a night away from the kids where you come in and um there is something there for you. So, we want to reach across generations um through the physical design and programming. There's also a strong desire to preserve the museum's unique and beloved features. Dinosaurs, dinosaurs, dinosaurs. We heard that over and over again. Not a surprise.

We need more dinosaurs. No, we need more dinosaurs, absolutely. But what I what I took from that and I talked to many people during one of our in-person events, what I took from that is that visitors are coming here not just because they need something to do. They're coming here because they truly are invested in the content, the story, and the collections that are here.

And they want to see that honored and respected through the space and the form of display and the type of programming that is offered. So I found that really directive in thinking about our future planning for the institution. At the same time the audiences were they acknowledged the age of the building, they acknowledged the need for a new facility to meet the kinds of experiences they might see when they travel to other cities.

And they also they we we were very open about talking about the cost, the need for this this is a project that will cost money and we talked with visitors and through the survey about the need for this project to give back to the community through economic impact. And so that was integrated into our thinking.

Additionally in the surveys which we received 518 responses for, an additional point to what I've already mentioned was that respondents want stronger representation of Arizona's regional character. And there was an expression of desire for deeper collaboration and representation of local indigenous groups building on the success of the very well received thrive exhibition at the museum. Uh the in-person event was a true delight.

Every time I come to Mesa, I'm more and more uh excited and kind of want to move here. Um so, um talking to folks who live in Mesa um was really um exceptional. We uh invited visitors to think about uh the future museum that they want to come to. And vis- we uh showed them images of other museum experiences. We invited them to write a narrative to sort of spell out their dreams. Um and visitors had clear preferences when it came to selecting among the images of those other museums.

The most popular images inver- involved um uh immersive experiences, multi-sensory, and playful spaces. They want to do whole-body engagement. They don't just want to tap buttons. They don't just want to um hear sound. They want to engage their whole selves in these experiences. And again, dinosaurs. More dinosaurs, please. So, there were two takeaways that are going to help direct us in our work. One is that we need to be focusing on future audiences.

So, while AZMNH has a strong local following today, we are building for tomorrow. The region, as Spencer has indicated, is growing rapidly and museums are evolving. And AZMNH must position itself as a forward-thinking institution ready to serve the future generations of this region. And we can't forget about how wonderful Mesa is and how this institution currently embodies that unique quality, the the quirkiness, the the drive, the all of the personality of Mesa, and we can't lose this.

As As Simon has said, and I I'm going to try not to do that. Um Uh this is a This is not going to be a typical museum. We are not going to be developing, and you will see this, we will not develop a standard museum plug-and-play development. This is going to be a unique a unique place where the residents of Mesa will see themselves in this in this institution. Um and with that, I'm going to begin to talk about what this place will look and feel like. I'll pause if there are any questions.

I think we're good to go. Great. Thank you so much. So, we're going to move into the moment we've all been waiting for. We're going to be talking about the the building itself and the experience design and what is possible for this wonderful institution. So, as we've said before, this is not a typical museum. And in order to create a unique and new kind of institution for the entire world, we have embarked on a unique partnership.

It is not always common for an architecture firm and an experience and exhibition design firm like G&A to partner at these early stages. And what this partnership has revealed and yielded is a one-of-a-kind unique experience where architecture and the storytelling and the overall experience are really beautifully intertwined to create a holistic experience. So, I'm very grateful to be here with Brian Furlong from Jones Studio by my side going through this.

I'm going to hit on a couple of the guiding principles that have informed the work just quickly and then Brian and I will dig into this further. We have come up with an organizing principle of journeys of discovery. And the intention here is that through the architecture and the experience and the unfolding of the story, visitors will be invited to traverse a journey of discovery of their own design.

Kind of like a choose your own adventure, find your own pathway kind of experience, where they will move through the past, present, and future of our planet and of Arizona. Arizona cannot be understated. This place is grounded in Arizona and is deeply inspired by the landscape and the history of Arizona. You will see this through the work that Brian will be sharing. The architecture, the experience design, and the storytelling are all derived from in Arizona inspiration.

And that inspiration continues uh into how we will unfold the story. And so, it is um this is a story of the whole world. Arizona history is world history. And so, in order to make that understandable to our visitors, we have to give them a uh an interesting way to hook into all of these complex uh aspects of the story. So, what we've come up with is this idea of these braided rivers.

Um the storytelling is built around four cross-cutting themes that transcend what is traditionally done in natural history museums, where you silo storytelling into just geology or just paleontology. Rather, in this museum, we will look at four themes: cosmos, Earth, life, and people. And we will be exploring them in interconnected ways.

And so, this is going to help to make these topics more accessible and approachable, while emphasizing the deep connections between these stories, and reflecting the fundamental truth that the Earth, life, and human culture are inextricably intertwined. And now, I'm going to turn it to Brian. Thank you, Claire. Morning, Mayor and Council. I'm really thrilled to be here and share some of the work we've been doing. Um architecture that's inspired by place always seems to be a good idea.

And in all the projects that I've sort of employed that strategy, um, Arizona Natural History Museum seems like the best and perfect fit. It just It just It just really matches up with that line of thinking. And so, this morning I'm going to share, um, some of the ways that we've interpreted place and have been been inspired by place in developing this project and developing the possibilities.

And I'm going to go through those, and then I'm going to share a little bit about a little some imagery that shares, um, where this has where this project has developed. So, the first slide here, you all recognize probably Red Mountain. And capturing capturing the qualities of the geologic history of this place is really something that we're attuned to, and we think that people can relate to. This beautiful photo of the light sort of activating the rock outcroppings is really amazing.

The 3D image on top is a section of the Grand Staircase in northern Arizona, and it's amazing layers of strata. We've We've also been inspired by by those elements. Another way to be inspired by place is to really sort of take in the history and the wisdom of the folks that have lived here for centuries. And you all probably recognize, or many of you recognize, the Turney map.

You know, just a really amazing reminder of how we live here today and the history of this amazing canal system, the largest in North America. That is sort of the underlying, um, basis for a lot of a lot of the way we live in the valley today. It's really amazing. Um, there's also great a great history of earth and structures that you can you can visit out at SMV and and around the around the valley and in Arizona that we can build on.

And if you sort of take that history and that those smart things that the people that have lived here for centuries have done with water, and we think about that in terms of this sort of extreme drought that we're dealing with today, I believe architecture not only has the responsibility to conserve water, but it should embody and really put on display, um, all of the ways that we can celebrate this precious resource.

Architecture inspired by place also looks to natural materials and local materials. We have copper, rammed earth, rammed earth sort of a descendant of of these earth and structures. And then, if you think about how you employ landscape in this project, I I challenge any of you to look at an aerial view of the desert. Life grows where there's water. You know, it's it's just a part of this place.

So, we see we see the landscape, the ground plane, the terraces as an educational opportunity to really teach visitors, kids, about the responsibility of using water carefully and choosing native plants to landscape our institutional projects. And then, you know, another big part of this place is clearly climate. And if there's opportunities to sort of make indoor outdoor spaces, I think there's, you know, there's really great potential in that.

The image on the left is the college uh is ASU College of Law in downtown downtown Phoenix. This is one of our projects. And what we did there was we used this big airplane hanger style door to open up the space and sort of blur interior and exterior. That's a 50-ft wide by 30-ft tall door that opens up. And, you know, much of the year we can do that. It just makes everything flow.

The couple of images in the middle really sort of speak to the the possibilities of utilizing spaces out in the landscape, on the ground plane, on terraces, on the rooftop. Really sort of take advantage of the great weather that we have here. And then the image on the right actually steps inside the building and imagines how we can how we can move through and and support this journey of discovery in a building that's multi-story.

You know, in a in a dense, growing urban environment, we have to go multi-story, but it's easy to have buildings that's hard to navigate if you're in and out of an elevator the whole time. We're looking to employ these double-height spaces so you can sort of see where you go and they connect floor levels. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. And then really if you're not responding to the heat and to the sun of this place, you're not doing your job.

And and any any good building in the desert should respond to those respond to the forces of the sun. This image on the left is just this incredible natural feature that we think really sort of captures this idea of embracing an experience and treating treating um the way you bring sun in, the way you um have water as part of the experience as special. It sort of really embraces you. It's protective. And that's a inspirational image that we you'll see again.

And then the image on the right, clearly, this sort of fantastic, thriving, vital downtown Mesa. We want to build on that and really try to even supercharge it with the museum. So, at AZM MNH, your journey of discovery starts here. Starts now. We want to We want to sort of capitalize on all the amazing qualities of this place and be inspired by the natural history to make an architecture that is really meaningful and powerful. So, let's take a look at the possibilities.

So, you're all familiar with the existing site. This is an overlay of the new ground plane that we've been developing. Going to zoom in on that drawing. And if you look at the floor plan, everything in white, you can see a lobby, cafe, retail space, some educational spaces, an event space, restaurant, back of house. You can also see in the center what we're calling the canyon.

And that's really sort of the heart of the building as you arrive on the ground plane, and I'll speak more about that in a moment. But this ground plane is is really sort of about giving back to the public and and allowing the landscape to create sort of shady spots and great places to be outside. You can see along McDonald, that there's bus drop-off. And And let me shift to the next page.

This This yellow stripe across the drawing is really trying to emphasize how you can enter the the museum and the ground plane. From the south southwest corner, you can come into the canyon, and also from the north. So, it's really open and porous and easy to get into. And if you step up into the building, you can imagine You can imagine it you know, if you step back in and think about what I was talking about with um buildings that respond to the sun.

If you look at this big heavy black line, you can imagine sort of this heavy wall, this thermal, you know, this really thermal barrier hugging, right, the inhabitants, hugging people, hugging all of the great exhibits that are inside. So, that's keeping the sun out and allowing the utility bills to be low and manageable. The canyon, the liner of the canyon is where all the glass is.

So, that's where we'll control daylight and keep not direct light, but diffuse light sort of very carefully brought into the building. And so, this this view is basically acknowledging that we're going to go through a series of views that will sort of give you a step into what this facility looks like. So, let's take a look. So, imagine standing on the steps of the post looking southwest towards the building. This is what you see.

You can imagine the building opening up at the ground level and offering sort of this this sort of shady respite for people to enter into, and you're also greeted by a giant dinosaur and multiple dinosaurs as you go further in. You knew that was going to be a question. Oh, yeah. The dinosaur will be gone? Absolutely. We're going to take what the existing is and really just make it all the better.

So, so the the the wrapper of this building is inspired by those images that I shared at Red Mountain. Clearly not bringing red stone onto the building, but the ins and outs, the undulation, the way the sun hits, and the way it activates and changes during the day. We're trying to capture those qualities in that amazing geologic feature.

The upper portion of the building, you can see there's there's a roof terrace, and then there's the restaurant and and retail level, which we were calling the Commons, and I'll talk more about that later, and then the hotel space is above. So, this next image swings around to the north as if you were walking down First and stopped at the building. You can see school kids arriving in the morning for field trips.

You can see You can see It's actually a little tough to see in this image with if I had a pointer, but all of the roof all of the water that hits this building in a rainstorm is channeled to this these north ends and into the gardens. So, we're passively irrigating all of landscape in a very responsible way that celebrates sort of this natural resource that we all have to treasure.

The other thing I want to show here is if you look sort of sort of to the left of the image, you can kind of see going into the canyon, going into this sort of shady interior space, and that's where we're going to step next. So, this is stepping into the canyon. You move into this space and your eye is going to go up through the 10 stories up to the blue sky above with some solar panels shading shading over over top.

The glass walls of this canyon space are are layered with a pattern glass that's an abstract geological pattern speaking back to or looking back to the um the layers that we saw in the Should I keep going? We're good. Thank you. Yeah. So, back to He He needs his coffee, so he'll be fine. Yeah, understand that. So, the the abstract layers of strata that you saw in the in the 3D diagram of the grand staircase.

And then the the hangar door that I shared um previously open up connecting inside and outside. And then a super tall flexible digital canvas on the left that right now in this image is showing a Basically, it's a great backdrop for um the Mesa celebration of freedom. And if I Kudos on the picture. You know who you put in there. I I think that's very intuitive. So, I'm going to zoom Mr. Adams said, "Look at the guy in the cowboy hat." So, I'm going to zoom in just to emphasize that. Wow. Yeah.

So, So, this this event that's really selling us right? Right? Mayor and council on stage. You can You can feel it, right? Okay. Okay. So, we're going to step into the lobby next. Sort of this indoor outdoor space. You get a sense of how diffused light through the canyon can enter the building. This is also this the first in a series of these double height spaces that I'm going that I talked about earlier.

That's a really important feature of how you move through the building and how you take on this journey of discovery. You can also see, speaking back or looking back to these earth and structures that I mentioned earlier, we're hoping to use rammed earth on this ground level. And this very sort of heavy um thermally efficient um walls that keep the heat out and keep the cool in. So, this is the first sort of the first sort of step in your journey of discovery as you move into the building.

And just before I turn it over to Claire to talk about some of the experiences inside in the exhibit spaces, I just want to run through a couple of diagrams that sort of sort of show how the building's put together. This is the whole building on the left. And then if I expand it, if I sort of explode it apart, it's really divided into three functional areas. The ground, the sort of the orangey colored portion is the museum.

Then there's this level called we call the Commons, which is restaurant and retail, outdoor terraces, and then above that the hotel and the observation level above. Now, I'm going to take the museum level, the orange level, and pull it over to the right side and expand it into the four floors that it has. And then really what I wanted to share with this diagram is the way we're employing these double-height spaces. So, you can see these yellow spaces that stack in the floor plans.

You have level one connecting to two. Move over to the other side of the second level, two connects to three. You can imagine being in those spaces and seeing up to the balcony and really sort of fueling this idea of you could have a different experience every time you visit the museum because it's it's not prescribed. And then the next two levels, three to four, and then four up to the observation deck. Are the Excuse me, the terrace. So, turn it over to Claire. Thank you, Brian. There we go.

Thank you, Brian. Was there a question before Okay. Keep going. Um I'm actually going to go back one slide. To just note that as you move through the building moving upwards, you are traversing time and space as well. So, this is the story of 4.5 billion years. And as you move up through the floors of the museum through those double height spaces, you will begin to learn the the full history of the earth.

Um so now the way that we're going to do that from a storytelling perspective is if you remember those intersecting themes, those braided rivers of storytelling, those are going to be connected throughout the floors. So, the overall experience of each floor will follow the natural flow of these intersecting stories interweaving and illuminating how the landscape shapes life, how ecology influences culture, and how all are bound across together through time.

Um the diagram on the right is showing um sort of an abstracted version of those floors. But what you can see is that level one is the theme of origins talking about how the earth comes alive. You move up then to level two of the Mesozoic region the Mesozoic, the Cenozoic, and then our living memory, the recent past. This is human history. And then at the top of the building is this roof observatory.

And so this beautiful moment to bookend the experience where you start from the origins of life and then you get to look out at the history of life out in the universe at the very top. So, I think there's both a poetic and experientially wow moment in all of that. So, welcome to your museum of natural history. Um here Arizona's history is world history. And as you rise up the escalator up to this lobby level the walls of the of floor are pulsating with the life of this new planet.

And you are drawn into I see Easter eggs. Yeah, yes, there's a few there's a few in there. Got to go to thought it was a guy from Jurassic Park. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Getting dangerous. Uh So, I'm so glad you noticed that. There you can see on the right there is this what we're calling threshold treatment, which is that each floor is going to introduce this new moment in time and a new moment in place.

And we're going to be using this threshold architecture to help the visitor to sort of ground themselves in where they are in time because this is a lot of time we have to get them through. Um and so the next view is going to show an example of how that might look on each floor. So, the idea here is to create an immersive, multi-media, and physical experience that on each floor will communicate the new time the new time zone that or time era epoch that we are in.

Um you can also see that this element of water water as we've mentioned throughout is critically important important because the story of life on Earth is the story of water. And so both metaphorically in terms of those themes of the stories operating sort of like water movement, we also will have literal representations of water.

And in this picture what we might be imagining is projections or a digital imagery on the floor that you're walking on and perhaps as you move the the the the image responds to your movement to your footprints. You might see prehistoric water-based creatures below your feet moving around you. And this is a way to start to activate that idea of journey of discovery that you are you have ownership of your own journey as you move through these various pathways in the museum.

Welcome to our first image of one of these double height spaces. So you can see why we need double height in addition to being able to have sort a certain amount of like vistas within within the building. We also physically need these double height spaces because we are working with collections that are enormous. In the museum field we call these macro artifacts or macro collections. So imagine that you are able now to hear the sound of the breathing of enormous dinosaur overhead.

Perhaps that stomach or that abdomen area sort of is expanding and contracting. Maybe you're able to go over to the leg of this creature and feel is it warm or is it actually cold? What kind of creature is this? We also will have integrated throughout the latest technologies which are constantly evolving and we're always planning for them. But integrating the historic collections that the institution is so well known for with ways of exploring them through digital access.

That's what we have represented on the left. And then moving upwards through the building through these escalators up to the next time and place. This is an example of how the building as a whole is going to operate like a supercharged Dino Mountain. So we heard so much about how people love Dino Mountain but we want to take that and expand it up across all the floors of the building.

And lastly for our last interior image, I want to reinforce some about the different learning styles that museum visitors have and the need for each floor, each theme to have an education lab space where you can get your hands dirty, where you can dig into the real science happening perhaps next to real scientists or real technologists. And so this is where um the partnerships that Spencer was referring to. Partnerships with the growing STEM economy here in Mesa, the Mesa region.

We can have corporate partnerships where real science or real technology is happening behind glass and the um visitors in the front are getting there to play their hand at doing and learning about that. This is all part of that um career pathway forming and helping uh especially young people to see their future in the STEM fields. So those are some examples of interior spaces and I'm going to turn it back to Brian to look back outside. Okay, so I have a couple of last images.

This one is is really it. This is This is capturing an aerial view evening credible sunset illuminating the Superstitions. You can see City Hall. And a great night time street fair going on that it's extending on McDonald and Pepper really sort of connecting to this building and and celebrating the possibilities of of how this new project or how this future project can supercharge the the great vitality that already exists in downtown Mesa.

You can also take note that on the terrace level um you can see that there's an event happening and then it's kind of small but if you look closely at the top of the building, the observatory level that Clara was was sharing um a gathering happening up there on this great evening. Brian, the event space, is it I'm trying to get the orientate looking north or south. So, the Terrace event space is looking south. Or excuse me, yeah, south. It's So, main Main Street is over here on the right. Okay.

Yeah. You wouldn't want it to look north towards mountains to the We do have There are some opportunities up the observe The observatory looks looks looks that direction. And then we didn't get into the detail, but there's also there's also a couple of terraces on the north side that look towards SMV and the mountains to the north. Okay, cuz occasionally there might be snow on those mountains at the right time, which probably not for the last few years, but I love your optimism.

We can pray for that. Anyway, thank you. Oh, yeah, of course. And then the last image, sunset shot. Fireworks fireworks in the distance. You can imagine a cocktail style event on the terrace looking out over the city. You know, really this is just a a view that it's about that's about a future grand public space for downtown Mesa. This is Council Member Taylor. Um Thank you so much for this presentation this far. I have some accrued questions, but I just have to chime in.

I really think Mayor Freeman has a good point. Um this is a museum of natural history, and I think the majority of the lookout should face the mountains. We should be looking at Arizona's natural terrain, um appreciating all the beauty that it affords us. And if you can imagine seeing any type of um sunset reflecting off the Superstition Mountains, it's one of the most majestic things you will ever put your eyes on. They turn brilliant shades of orange and fuchsia and pink.

And at least once a year, uh, you can see the cougar on the mountain. And I just think that it would be exceptional to have the opportunity, as people are visiting and having a cocktail hour or having a social event, to really appreciate that natural beauty that we have, that that would be the majority of what people would be looking at.

Um, and you can obviously see fireworks from a 360° view pretty much anywhere in the city when there are going to be a celebration, um, including out towards the mountain range. So, I just have to chime in on that. I'm pretty passionate about the fact that if we're looking at proposing an incredibly large project about Arizona's natural history, one of the things that we should be really almost myopically thinking about, should be our center view, is our mountains.

They're what draw people here from all over the world. So, I just I think that that was a really good point that Mayor Freeman made, um, and he's right. Sometimes we do get snow on those mountains, and I have seen people pull over on the highway to get out and take pictures of them because it's just so incredibly gorgeous. It could have been me. I could see it from my house. Thank you, Mayor Councilmember Taylor.

I I I couldn't agree more, and we have in in this sort of state of the development of the project, we do have those opportunities, but it's certainly something we could study and build on. Claire, you're going to point out something in this image? Um, thank you, and I I also, um, couldn't agree more.

Um, the, um, this this image that we've pulled up here is of the other side, um, and although it doesn't capture the full height of the building in this view, uh, you can see that there is an emphasis on those vistas, um, because, uh, we agree. Absolutely, the the the view of those mountains is critical to, um, to the success of this place. So, thank you. Thank you for that comment. All right. Go ahead, Brian. Let me just get back to oops, I went there we go.

So yeah, this this is the this is the the final shot just imagining um you know, the building sort of fully alive in an in an evening with a great sunset. Uh just the potential for a public space elevated, I think is really fantastic. So thank you. And uh we truly believe this is a project worth celebrating. Um and so the next section is to talk about how we are able to fundraise and develop for the success of this project and we're going to turn it over to Laura McDonald to cover that part.

Thank you. Thank you, Claire. Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor and Council members. I'm delighted to be here with you today. I'd also like to commend you on your patience and stamina. This has been a a long presentation already. So we'll try to get through this last section uh fairly quickly and get to your questions. Uh you've heard the economic case. You've learned that the residents are enthusiastic. You've seen the remarkable vision.

Uh now the practical question becomes how do you how do communities like Mesa fund projects like this? Great. Are you controlling the slides or am I? No, you are. Okay. So we're working from a uh $300 million project scenario. It's only going backwards for me. There you go. Thank you. So let's let's just imagine a $300 million project scenario and um look at a funding strategy that has three legs. Public investment, should you elect to proceed.

Private commercial investment in the hospitality and hotel portions of the project and private philanthropy. And here's what makes this model compelling. That for every public dollar that might be invested, the potential exists to attract two additional dollars from the private sector. That's a three-to-one leverage ratio and I think that uh that's sound fiscal stewardship by any definition. Um the public-private approach has worked in comparable cities.

So, Council Member Adams, you will hear later on about a couple of those communities that have been able to achieve comparable visions through public-private partnerships. And but for the next few moments, I want to focus specifically on philanthropy and the role that private philanthropy can play in helping you to achieve this vision.

So, what we're talking about here is private charitable giving, not debt, not public dollars, but the question about how much can we realistically anticipate philanthropists might contribute to a project like this. And I think that there a handful of ways in which we might begin to uh have some sense of that. Uh first, we can look at the national philanthropic landscape. Um and then also look at charitable giving patterns right here in Arizona in the metro area.

Um we can look at instances where national funders and even global funders have supported projects similar to this. And as I said, uh talk about comparable museums. I'll address all of those, but I believe that by the end uh you'll share my conclusion that there is a successful campaign that is achievable, but only if you choose to invest the resources necessary to engage donors and get there. So, let's talk first about charitable giving in America.

And um this is from the most authoritative source on charitable giving in America, an annual report called Giving USA, researched and written by the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. And as you heard, I served on the Giving USA board for many years and two terms as chair, so I know this data well. And I can geek out a little bit, so hold me back if I'm going too deep.

So, the headline is that in 2024, the most recent year for which we have comprehensive data, Americans gave $592 billion to nonprofit organizations. And just for perspective, that's 35 times the annual budget of the state of Arizona. So, there's remarkable generosity. What drives this giving? It is by and large individual donors. They account, as you can see, for $392 billion in direct gifts to nonprofit organizations.

Add to that, however, the 8% that comes in the form of bequests, individuals who are giving after their lifetime, and about half of that foundation slice of the pie, which is individuals giving from a closely held family foundation or a donor-advised fund. So, really, individual donors drive about 85 cents of every charitable dollar that's given in America. Now, there are also generous corporations and foundations, and we'll talk about that a little bit as well.

If you look to the bar chart the pie chart to the right, you'll see that arts, culture, and humanities, which is the slice in which a museum would fall, is a relatively small slice, if you call $25 billion small. Um but I think that a project like this doesn't simply sit in one small slice of the pie, that donors who are attracted to education, to public society benefit, to workforce development, all of those dollars can be driven to a project like this. And finally, I'll note one more thing.

This is the 2024 data. 25 will come out in about a month. It is remarkably stable. Charitable giving is a very resilient part of our economy. That since 1967, charitable giving has declined in real dollar terms only five times. Doesn't always keep up with inflation, but it's declined only five times. So, it's also a very uh reliable source of revenue that you can project. So, let's talk about Arizona.

Uh here, we estimate the total charitable giving in Arizona is somewhere between five and seven billion dollars. Um and the metro area alone accounts for a 3 to 4 billion of that. Again, individuals are the leading source of charitable gifts in the state and metro. But here's what's really important when we think about the kind of campaign that you might be considering. And that's that 65% of the dollars that come from individual donors come from just 3% of the households.

And those are high net worth households, defined as households with annual income of $200,000 a year or more and accumulated assets of a million dollars or more. There are 120,000 of those households in the metro area, including here in Mesa. Those are the households that really drive a campaign like the kind that you might be considering. And here's a concrete example. In the last 5 years, just three families in the metro have collectively given more than 220 million dollars.

So that's really you'll see more about that focus. But it doesn't mean that everyday donors are secondary or unimportant. They too are important. They will drive the annual operating campaign. They will drive memberships and participate in activities. But really it's the major gifts from high capacity individuals that will drive something like this. I will say briefly that Arizona is also home to about a thousand foundations. Those foundations hold 7 billion dollars in assets.

And in 2023 alone, they gave 222 million dollars to arts and culture organizations here in the state. So let's talk a little bit about the national picture for giving. There we go. So Arizona organizations already receive about 325 million dollars from foundations that are outside of Arizona. So it is possible to attract funding from outside of the state and region also for a project like this. And we think that this project has the potential to draw from that national pool.

I'll say a couple of things. One of the reasons that national funders are interested in world-class museum projects is because they know that in America museums attract more visitors than all athletic and theme park combined. Museums attract more visitors than major sporting events and theme parks combined. Sports and theme parks attract about 450 million visitors a year. Museums attract 850 million visitors a year. So, they know that this is a bedrock of the American experience.

And this particular museum sits at a a really highly fundable intersection. You've got funders who are interested in research and scientific discovery, those who are interested in education at every level. You know, museums are more and more recognized as uh the place where informal education happens in our country. Uh public engagement community benefit.

Museums are being recognized also as a place where a civic third space where people from all over the community come together regardless of their political or social or economic circumstances and stare in wonder at the same dinosaur. And that does something for our civic fabric. So, I will say that the largest gifts that come from national foundations to a project like this are driven by the very things you're considering doing.

Uh major landmark building projects, uh new national education programs. So, I think it's an area where you've got some real promise. And uh Council Member Adams, I can see you squinting across the bottom. We will talk a little bit about more a couple of those institutions, but those are examples of uh organizations that have attracted tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in support of a major civic project like this. We're going to talk more specifically about a couple of those.

So, let me just talk for a moment about how museums raise money. Yeah. There you go. So, uh fundraising is a business model like any other kind of business model. And for every dollar that might be invested in fundraising, um you will realize in a mature operating model three to six dollars in uh return on that investment for uh an annual campaign, your annual operating budget.

You'll also realize much more than that, as much as 10 times or more your investment in a capital campaign because of the scale, uh because of the um wonderful vision, and because of the way that it really targets the top of the economic ladder. But you have to invest. And what do you invest in? You invest in people.

It's a very labor-intensive business, so you need both the front-line fundraisers who are going to engage donors personally and also back-of-house staff that will do the research and the data management and the business intelligence work. Um you need a disciplined process. Uh it doesn't happen simply by accident or walking around and asking people for money.

So, you need a very disciplined process to manage the relationships from the first contact through stewardship after they've made their gift. And technology. Now, the city has a donor CRM. Uh it needs to be augmented with other kinds of technology tools, social media tools, business intelligence tools. And then all of that requires a a culture of philanthropy, a culture that's donor-focused, that's data-driven, and that uses all of that for strategies.

If we were to look practically at how a campaign if we were go back to that $100 million scenario and understand that at this point that's just a scenario that we're modeling from. But if we were to look at that, you can see that the distribution of gifts that would be necessary in order to raise that amount of money follow the kinds of economic patterns that I addressed earlier in the presentation. The majority of dollars will come from a relatively small number of donors.

That those donors um will reflect the way that philanthropic and economic resources are distributed in our society today. And it's those lead gifts that really set the pace. They also signal credibility to the donors that will come after. And they require relationships. Those relationships take time to develop. You have to start now. If you have a shot at doing that for this campaign, there's no shortcut.

The sooner we identify who those top prospects might be, begin engaging them in conversation, give them meaningful ways to participate in some of the charrettes and some of the development of this project so they feel a sense of ownership, uh the better positioned you will be to achieve this kind of a goal. I'll let Spencer walk through a couple of the case studies that uh we mentioned. And then I think we open it up to questions. Great. Thanks, Laura.

So, one of the first ones we want to talk about is uh just up the road, and that's the Natural History Museum of Utah. And that was a museum that was in a building that was constrained. It was not built for the purpose of being a museum. And when they underwent a transformational project and moved to a new building that was fit for purpose, they were able to triple attendance and become a top attraction in the Mountain West.

This was a project that utilized a hybrid partnership structure between private investment, university investment, and state investment. It was a project that in total, adjusted to today's dollars, cost about $200 million. Um and it was funded almost 60% by public sources, with the rest of the funding coming from private sources. And again, this project allowed the museum to triple their attendance and increase their earned revenue streams.

It's not really shown in this image, but you can kind of see in the top image of the after photo, there are tremendous private event spaces and opportunities. And that was a priority of the new Natural History Museum of Utah as part of this move. Another example would be the Milwaukee Public Museum, which will soon be the Nature and Culture Museum of Wisconsin.

And this is a again a hybrid partnership structure between the county, the state, and private investment to build a new 200,000 square foot museum with a total project plus budget of about 250 million dollars. And this funding was done through a mix of public and private sources. Uh about 35% coming from public sources and 65% coming from private sources.

And part of this new building and this transformation was to go from a current building that is constrained and not built built for purpose and to create a building that was fit for the market and fit for their new location. They relocated to a cultural district um and a tourism district in Milwaukee. And with that, they planned for event spaces, experiences, and amenities that are fit for the opportunity.

And you can kind of see at this existing site activation where they will new now be located, there's a ton of action going on around them. And they've they've the design of this project reflects that. They moved across the street from the brewery is what you're telling me. The the brewery and uh the Deer District as they call it.

Uh for yeah, so they just like with this project, they recognized that they need to meet the market where it's at and they need to provide the experiences and the offerings that the market wants. And that will allow them to capture that greater level of attendance.

And again, these are just two examples of transformational projects, but there are countless that we can draw from where these regardless of partnership structure and funding structure, there are paths towards success and paths towards realizing uh the vision of a transformational project like this.

So, just in summary, you know, on behalf of the project partners, I believe that we've made a case here for a world-class natural history museum in Mesa that certainly is about paleontology and economic impact, but so much more. That really the question before you is what kind of city do you want Mesa to be and what kind of opportunity do you want to create for your half million residents and those the millions more who will pass through here.

You know, this will be a museum that tells a 4.5 billion year story that only you can tell authentically. This is authentically Mesa. That this story will train teachers, employ scientists, spark careers, generate private and public revenue, and give every child in the East Valley an opportunity to wonder.

This institution is far worth far more than any economic multiplier alone can capture, but I know that you will have good questions about how we can make a responsible case both to you and ultimately to your citizens. Thank you. Thank you, Laura. Candace, you're going to wrap it up? I am. Um, but I do want to cuz we what we're going to be going on to next and I and I say thank you to you you see the we got best in class and every consultant that we have here.

I think you've heard that from their background, from their presentation, from their from their knowledge of the data and so forth. And we're the the next one is I'm going to talk about the next steps, but I know that you've been accumulating questions, too. And so it's up to you, Mayor, if you'd like me to tell you what what this looks like over the next 2 years or do you want us to address questions on the ahead and have you sum it up here and then we'll ask questions. Okay, thank you.

So, Mayor and Council, as we go forth from here, the question is now what, right? What what are our next steps that we go through? And as you heard a lot of the different activities that we've been doing over the over the last 2 years, some of those would continue at a different level.

So, as we go through, what we're looking for is we're looking over the next 2 years, so we're looking at a 2-year outcome that we would come back each May to give Council an update, but at the end of the 2 years, um we would come back with these particular outcomes. So, they're listed here on the slide. So, one of the major ones would be to conduct an an economic impact study. So, you heard the return on investment already, return on impact. Um this was based on the museum in general.

Now that we actually have a concept of what it would look like, what type of partners we would have, what type of amenities we would have, um Spencer and his team would now go back and do a full economic impact study, and we would have that done within the next year would be the goal for that one.

Um as we move into the um community the community outreach and the design and the experience um that we would be designing into this, that would now these next 2 years would go into the community again and looking for those more as we start to get into more of a design mode. What do we actually going to look like? You saw some great concepts and some great examples of what it could look like.

Now it's actually going through the floors um as Claire was talking about and actually starting to have that community dialogue and input as to what those might look like and and starting to put those together. So, that'd be a lot of community outreach. Um on the principle you you heard Laura talk about we start those relationships now with our future partners.

Whether it's our future um for our culture of philanthropy that we're that we're going to set up and we're going to move forward, who put the right people in place, right? That's that takes people. She talked about people and processes and and technology to make that happen. So, over the next 2 years um as you can see on some of these slides, the fundraising capacity building, that would be year one.

How do we structure the right system, the right people, the right processes so that we can be successful? Um going into year two would actually be hitting the fundraising campaign itself. Um actually develop hiring those people, developing those relationships, starting to really walk through. The goal would be to start getting those relationships going and having those partners ready when we actually are ready to go out and talk to the residents about the public funding.

So, that would be the goal is as you heard Laura talk about um, investing ourselves in order to bring those partners on. So, year two would really be that investment into what does that look like?

The goal would be two years from now, we have um, we we've validated the site, we've validated the realistic of really realistic ability of this particular building, of this orientation, of this um, design, so that we really have a package that we're ready to go to the residents and say, this this is what's going to happen for Mesa. This is the economic impact. This is the social impact. These are the partners that we have found so far.

These are the ones who are ready to invest in Mesa with us and invest in the state as well. Um, we do we need to remember this is the Arizona Museum of Natural History. It's not the Mesa. This is representing all of Arizona if not the Southwest region. Um, because that's what we said was we're unique. And you've heard that a few times. Mesa is the place for this museum.

So, as we go over the next two years, it's that storytelling, it's the community engagement, and um, that kind of initial, these are concept designs, that's the initial design, making sure that what we envision will actually work on the site. Um, make sure there isn't anything we haven't thought about. Talking about orientation as we've talked about today, all of those types of things would happen over those next two years. But, probably the most important part is sitting next to me here.

So, the most important part is is that funding strategy and structure that will that will take the next two years to fully put in place so that we hopefully come back to council with partners in hand who are willing to invest in Mesa with us. So, I'm sure there's questions, but I'll I'll start off by So, over the next 2 years, there's a cost to that. What cost is there to move forward to implement the process?

So, Mayor, we have been working with Scott Butler and working with OMB on the budget, and we have identified about $6 million over 2 years, so that would be those full 2 years of one-time costs that we would put toward this project to continue this project for the next 2 years. That has been worked out to identify some one-time revenues, so it would not impact the ongoing forecast that the council has already seen, and those are have been earmarked in the proposed budget at this point.

Is how how's the foundation part of that? Are they going to help with that, or what's the strategy behind that, Laura? And, you know, when we talk about money, people sometimes get sensitive to that word, and and perhaps you can kind of give us a bland hybrid. Simon. Yeah, Mayor and Council, thank you. Great question. The role of the foundation has been critical as a strategic partner for quite some time. Over the past few years, they've supported with their commitment over $760,000.

This has enabled us to do a lot of this work together with the city on this redevelopment project. So, moving forward, we've all been growing together. This is all new for us, a lot of us as a city, as well as the foundation and an institution and department. We've all been growing together, and as we've been learning how to do something this amazing for the for for our residents, the the foundation has changed and evolved and grown.

And they've We now have a great On this foundation, we now have a great team who are working together. Uh we have fantastic leadership with a lot of great connections. So, from the city's standpoint, I'm really very really really confident that we will get there, but we also have the foundation uh in the audience today. So, we have our chair that uh David Luna and previous vice chair uh Dennis Cavana here to They can also uh come to the dice.

And I If I can add something as well, and I'm sure Alora can speak to this, Mayor and Council, that um in some instances, and there are case studies, more than case studies, they're actual practical delivery of this model where um because we are talking about not just Mesa dollars, uh Valley dollars, we're talking more national, in some cases global. There are um models where an a cabinet is installed specifically for the capital campaign.

And these can be heavy hitters from across the country, across industries, that supplement our foundation in what they do on an ongoing basis for a very limited, and sometimes years, a period of time so that those big um donors can be identified globally, if you will. So, uh the burden of a hundred, you know, a hundred thousand, a hundred million dollars does not fall on our foundation solely.

They are partners in in the totality of this fundraising, but there is a cabinet that is identified through the next two years in as soon as we decide to move forward that become part of that capital campaign um board. And in some cases, they stay afterwards, and in some cases, they they just dissolve. So, it will be hybrid. We know that we need to reach out of our local um area for this kind of of of philanthropic support.

So, we've already discussed of how we achieve that, and I don't know if Laura wants to add to that, but that is one way. And I also want to just the question that was asked earlier about how much support we've gotten in the past or from the foundation. As as Simon mentioned, they have been strategic partners. There has not been an expectation that they were raising funds necessarily, and that transition is happening now with new board members and new leadership at the local level.

So, I hope that answers. It It does. Uh Council, I think it's our turn to weigh in ask some questions. Let's go with Ms. Taylor first if uh Ms. Taylor. Yes, the mic is yours. Thank Um okay. So, one thing I just wanted to say was thank you so much for the presentation. I know it was very long, and I've done long presentations myself, so I appreciate the time that everyone took to give us such great information. And I love slide 62.

Beautiful beautiful representation of what the inside of that museum could be for interactive um I guess I should say visitor interaction. That was where they were kind of walking on that fake river and going through what looked like a canyon. So. Okay, so going back to the very beginning with money. We talked about private equity and investments.

You went through a few slides, and I just have some some questions about the past and how you will reflect on the past going forward and and current situations. So, for the Arizona Natural History Museum currently, do we receive any private equity funds invested in the current museum right now? And if we do, how much and what's our goal for this particular location? You want to answer? That is currently not a part of our funding model.

Um right now the majority of our of our funding is earned revenue um and then of course the government support and the foundation, but we do not have any private equity funding at this point. Um maybe Laura can speak to what what that might look like in the future of this. Well, um depending on how you're defining private equity, I think that there are a couple of opportunities that we look at uh Council Member Taylor, Mayor, Vice Mayor.

Uh one is that the one of the three legs of that funding stool that I showed was the $100 million uh and and again, all of this is a model. Let's not put set any of it in stone yet, but that a third of it could be private investment in the hospitality assets that would be a part of this development. So, that certainly uh could be uh private equity or other forms of private investment. So, for-profit ventures. Um you might even call them impact investments.

And then if you take a look at the private philanthropy, I will say that many of the donors that we are dealing with across the country in other projects have uh developed their wealth through private equity. They're now making different decisions about how they're investing it. They're investing it philanthropically rather uh than in additional enterprises, but that certainly is part of what is driving that structure that we saw with uh so many large gifts at the top end of a gift chart.

Does that answer your question, Council Member? Um a little bit. So, we'll dive in a little bit more. So, you you have a obviously a a division between true private equity and what you would call private equity private equity through philanthropic giving. I.e., I'm Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm understanding I'm a business. I'm I'm just quote-unquote giving to the museum to help fund it. I'm actually going through essentially a philanthropic route to donate.

So, I have my own tax benefits from doing that. Is that how you're separating those two things? Absolutely. Okay, great. So, am I correct in just saying that for the sake of this presentation and kind of creating a visual for us, you have a goal of $100 million from that particular source of income? From private philanthropy, I I think it's premature to call it a goal, Council Member.

I think that what we are working with from is a model and that there is a lot of work to be done in the next 2 years. Some of it starting with looking at the internal capacity of the city and its partners at the foundation to mount this kind of a campaign. Do you have the people, the processes, the technology, the culture, and building on all of that? And then in the second year, if you should choose to proceed, really looking very specifically at developing that list.

I think the gift chart we shared had something in the neighborhood of 140 gifts represented, ranging from $20 million to $50,000. And, you know, for 140 gifts, you would want to identify probably two to three prospects for each gift on that chart. You can get your arms around 450 prospects. You don't need to have the phone book, if that's not a dated reference. You can You can get your arms around who those Identifying who those 450 are.

And at the top of that gift chart in particular, you can understand to a individual level what it is that inspires their giving, what draws them to this particular project, how you might best go about engaging them, whether they want to sit in on a charrette, or go on a national road show. So, you'd do a custom strategy for each one of those prospects at the top of the the chart.

But as I say, let's view it for now as a model and one that we're going to execute to, but there's a lot of validation that has to be done. I understand. I just like knowing kind of what your end goal post that you're working towards. Um so, philanthropic entities now, so separate, you know, true private from philanthropic entities. Who do we work with now who gives to our current museum? Do we have I didn't hear that listed. I'm sorry if I missed it.

I I was here and present of mind for the whole presentation, but there were, I think, 80 slides, so I may have I might not be remembering if that was listed in the discussion about money. Uh Mayor Council, member Taylor, could you please repeat the question, please? Ms. Downey, What what philanthropic entities or or organizations, if that's a better word, give to our current museum? Right now, there's Do we have Oh, sorry. Right now, we have a mix of both donors and grantors.

So, for example, we have the Mead Family Foundation and Charles Mead who have made huge contributions as donors. We've uh very, very successful in that without grants. So, in regards to the grants that we achieve, we get them from mainly 12.5% tribal gaming grants, as well as National NAGPRA, as well as many other really prestigious granting organizations. Currently, um this has grown over the past couple of years now comes to about 2.4 million, I I believe. Um over the past 24 months.

Does that answer your question? Yes, that was very helpful. It's good to know that we're working currently with organizations that are essentially donating and that we have grants. I kind of I just want the public to hear these questions, too. Um what do you those monies pay for? Are I Are they the ones paying for operations of our current museum? Are they paying for programs?

Can you just give us kind of a little taste of where the donations are going cuz I know the city subsidizes also a portion of the museum. Mayor and Council member Taylor, great question. It really is a public-private partnership whereby the foundation enables us to achieve a lot of programming that we would never be able to do without general fund or our arts fund fund. So, what does that look like materially?

It means that through donations as well as grants, we're able to onboard programs such as the Mead Machine, which is basically up the most current easy science curricula that is going out to our community. We're onboarding our second van now. That was over half There was over half a million dollars of investment between grants and donors. It allows us to do programming such as our adult adult late night series, which is just starting right now.

It's supplementing It allows us to to get to our community in a more substantial way and in a more extensive way. When it comes to operational, sort of helping us with our operational costs, it comes in a couple of places. The foundation supports what we call access, which is basically the offsetting of paid admissions for schools such as like Title 1 schools, veterans, and so forth. So, that directly does help offset our general fund.

And uh Council member Mayor and Council member Taylor, to just add on a little bit to that, yes, that we do uh get uh funding from the city and typically and the model that we're striving for as a department is that the city funds are paying uh for the building, uh for the maintenance of the building, for power, electricity, and providing a facility for the programming to happen in.

The programming is then funded either through foundation or philanthropic uh uh uh endeavors as well as through earned revenue. So, what we're the model that we want to expand across the entire department is that, you know, the city takes care of the envelope and everything that happens inside of it is either is is is through the community communities needs and identifying what those needs are and then getting support for those things.

And in many cases, those are expansion of either current programs or new programs that we would not have money to do otherwise if we were depending on the governmental support. Okay, that's very helpful. Do those funds also help pay for um Uh you'll have to forgive me for my ignorance on the vocabulary here, but what you see when you go into like who upkeeps the dinosaurs and the the scenery within the museum? Um is that funded by the city or is that also funded by donations?

They don't eat much. May May I ask customer Taylor, another great question. Um it is the the is funded by the city. Our 18 full-time and part-time extra part-time employees are funded by the city for doing that. It is a it's a mix it's a very small team of 18 and it's mixed between research, collections, engagement, and as well as administrative staff.

But I think what is really really important is how we started our conversation today was this unit business unit, which it is a business business unit, stretches between 70 to 80% recovery in its current non-fit-for-purpose, meaning that all of the city's costs are being offset through our revenue and participation and we're constantly expanding our revenue streams moving forward. And I know it sounds fun, you know, opening late night.

We now have birthday parties that are now, you know, is generating a lot a lot of income. As we move forward, we'll be continually looking to offset costs. And Mayor and Councilmember Taylor, just as well, some of these ongoing operational needs are done by staff. There are other and they have been identified, capital needs. And those are the projects that are, you know, through engineering or through facilities management to help.

So it's not necessarily just our staff, but some of those bigger exhibits, the gold panning and Dino Mountain, you know, some of those improvements that we have identified are necessary will come through other sources of funding and other maintenance maintenance activities. Okay, so the exit I'm sorry, exhibits was the word I was looking for and I was just dropping the ball in my brain. So those are covered by not just the city subsidizing.

They are currently covered by other donations and admissions fees, etc. Is that correct? Uh Mayor and Councilmember Taylor, another great question. It's a mix of both. For example, the basic maintenance of our exhibits that are now 20 years old, mainly, is covered by our general maintenance. When we do special projects like Thrive, which I hope everyone's seen here, that was completely supported mainly through donations and sponsors moving forward. So it's it's a mix.

We we we have city resources protect the city asset, our facility, and then then when we do supplementary programming, be it on site, physical, or with people, we use the foundation and the collaboration for that support. And I was going to say in fact Just one thing, Mayor and Councilmember Taylor, one thing to kind of when we say supported by the city, remember this is our earned income as as Simon had said. But when we also have large projects, those would be bond funded.

Would be our normal course if we have a large capital improvement, for example, what we're doing at Idea Museum right now with their renovation and their expansion. That was on the last bond election. And so, large capital improvements to the Natural History Museum would normally be through a bond. Um Okay. as as well. So, it's a combination of Uh another thing just to kind of mention, this is a working museum. And when I say that, what do I mean by that?

These are not doors that you walk into and you're looking at static exhibits or maybe a rotating one in one room. These are scientists that are actually on on the payroll, right, for us. They're they're working in the museum. So, it's a working museum. Um the scientists are doing research today um in that museum that is being published. They're receiving grants where they're going on dig sites in other countries um and bringing those either artifacts back or the research back or doing that.

So, when we talk about this new museum and you saw some of those uh lab spaces, um that is a vital part of this museum that is not necessarily in every other museum um where it's just exhibits. Um this is the working museum of as things come out, if new research is is learned, we would be modifying and doing those types of things. What that allows us to do is to reach out to different types of partnerships. So, partnerships on the labs themselves.

And those are one of the things that when we talk about philanthropy, there's philanthropy and then there's um um impact investment, right? And so, impact investment would be partnering with those entities who also want to do the same or similar research and co-partnering on the lab space. So, they may fund the lab and actually have their employees do research in that lab alongside our employees who are doing research in that lab.

And that's just a different way to partner on these types of things in the museum. It's another way where our museum, again, is not the typical museum. It is an a working research center and a museum all in all in one. Do we partner with any universities, Candace, for any of that research? And Mayor and Council member Taylor, those are one of the things that we have been experienced.

Simon and I have been talking about it for the last couple of years about what our current relationships are and what they could be and what they should be. Um and I'm going to I'm going to hand to Simon here in just a minute, but I do want to talk I want to talk up our scientists for for a minute. The reason why um ASU and UofA are reaching out to us um for assistance, and the state has also reached out to us for assistance, is cuz we have the right people with the right knowledge.

So, we've really built a core of scientists who know how to handle the artifacts and the exhibits that we have. And so, the state is actually looking to us to take on some of their responsibility um on things that happen here in in the in the state. And now, Vice Mayor's laughing at me, but um when we say take on the responsibility, I have talked with Simon. I said that also means we should receive some state funding for doing their work here. Yeah.

And so, those will be uh streams that we will be looking forward to as well um as we partner with those two actually be. So, Simon, do you want to just kind of say a little bit about the talks we've had so far? Yeah, Mayor Mayor Mayor Council, yeah. And relationships take a long time. So, this has been a couple years of conversations. Uh specifically, we've been working with ASU with our programming and our research actively.

Um one thing that the city is very good at that maybe they could be a little bit better at is community engagement. So, there's a there's there's a great yin-yang thing that's been happening programmatically with ASU with the ASM and H. On another level, uh the the uh the the Arizona State Museum, part of the UofA, have actually we've we've a really very long relationship with them.

They restored our repository and permitting rights, which was directly linked to economic development early on 3 years ago. We're now wanting to look to share responsibilities, meaning paleontological site responsibilities and what that could look like. So, they're looking at a new repository. We're going to need a new repository. They're looking for new ways to generate income.

So, one of the things that when I can remember our previous uh city management said, "Simon, why am I paying a lot of money to store rocks?" And you know, we've come a long way since then and why we we have these state and federal obligations to a lot of our collections that we have to do this work. But, the uh Arizona State Museum has a way that they actually have a business plan and model that pays for this work.

So, as we're building these really deep major relationships, be it state or academic, we will be looking at trying to share responsibility for state government uh responsibilities that would might get assigned to us or great collaborative and research opportunities with our academic institutions. I think that's what it No, keep going. I thought we had a really cool picture at the end. We Oh, that was cool. Oh. I was going to put this building back up.

Miss Miss Taylor, can I put you on hold for a moment? Sure. Sorry, I know I have quite a few questions, but I will definitely wait. Uh yeah, Mr. Adams, we'll switch switch over to Council Member Adams. Thank you, Mayor. Uh I appreciate that. I have a I have a hard stop at 9:45, so I appreciate your courtesy. I'll be really quick. Um first, before my questions, I would just offer that uh I've been aware of the foundation here for a good number of years. Uh Mr. Luna, Mr.

Cavanaugh and the other folks who were very active in that. There's no question in my mind about their level of dedication and commitment to what we have here. So, uh I think that's great that uh uh we we've further engaged that organization. Um a good good bedrock of Mesa volunteers. So, I think that's a great thing. Um let's see. Uh I I didn't hear What do we estimate the lifespan of this proposed facility to be? How many years?

The the the lifespan of the We're building civic a a Mayor Councilmember Adams, we're building a civic piece of architecture. So, we're thinking about many future generations. So, we're looking at a 75-year-old build, at least a 50-to-75-year-old uh facility moving forward. Okay. Again, it it is future-proofing. So, this is for our, you know, our our grandchildren's grandchildren.

So, we are really looking into a crystal ball, but like uh my my colleagues and peers have said, we are working with the world's best. We are getting direction of the world's best, and I think and something also really important was I remember a year ago when we last came to you, you we were talking about the funding stack, and we were said okay, you know, 60 30, you know, private public. I think what we've done today is actually really critical.

I think we've uh we've shown a way where we can show different ways to fund large civic government projects that are going to last 50 to 75 years. And I think that's that's a refreshing take, and I think um very proud of the team that we work with to get here to try to find the solution for you for um Mayor and Council.

And Mayor and Councilmember Adams, just to add to that real quick, that's why we put together both the um storytelling, right, the the exhibit type of space and experience with the architect from the beginning. So, we didn't build we didn't conceptualize a building and then try to figure out what exhibits would go in there.

And so, we want to make sure that the over time as things change as the what people want to experience change, we have the infrastructure to make those changes without doing a big renovation to the building type of a thing. So, those are the types of things we are building into this building. Yeah, I thought that was an interesting concept of of how you've envisioned this. And I was thinking 50 75 years. So, I'm glad we're on the same page.

Um We haven't talked about annual operating costs and how we're going to fund that and I assume that will come along in some as we progress with this. Do we have an idea on that? So, yes Mayor and Councilmember Adams, that is the work that will happen. Now that we have the concept of the building, the plot, the number of amenities in there, those types of things, those will all come over this next year. Okay, very good.

Um you mentioned that over the next couple of years each May you would come back with an update. I I'd like to see it more frequently than that. I don't know what my colleagues think about that, but a year's a long time. A lot changes. Maybe and Councilmember Adams, I think we'll be talking to all of you individually frequently over the next year. I think what we were talking about was be a formal presentation back to council each May, but yes, individually also working with our advisory board.

Um and and working through them as well. You're welcome, Vice Mayor Summers. Um So, yes, all of those in place. Um I don't imagine that we walk away today and then we say see you in a year and we show up next May and say here's what we have. I think those will be ongoing conversations. Um our intent though was to make sure we come back for a formal presentation um about our community engagement cuz again, we'll be out in the community as well.

Um so, all of those things will be happening over this next year. Good. I think that's an idea and I would again reiterate maybe in the public forum a little more often when you're asking the public for a big spend, it's a good idea to keep reminding them this is what you get, this is what we're proposing, what do you think? So uh Good enough. I think I think understood. Uh let's see real quick. Um It was mentioned there are 990 foundations in Arizona. That's that's astounding to me.

I don't doubt it. But uh and I assume that is from the the small staff of two to the large staff of 50. Um What the entire spectrum of of levels of interest or is it focused in any particular uh particular interest or No, I would say that uh their interests probably follow that pie chart that I showed with the sectors that receive charitable giving in in Arizona with the exception perhaps of religion which tends to be funded almost solely by individual donors.

Um and you're right, it's probably dominated there probably 10 foundations that represent half or more of those $7 billion worth of assets including uh you know, one um partner that we find to be very effective in many of the campaigns we work on is a local community foundation and you happen to have a very strong community foundation here in Arizona and I suspect a lot of those assets reside there but are directed by the individual donors or the individual corporations or or other groups that direct their gifts that are held and managed by the community foundation.

Okay, thank you. Uh last last question I have. And again, you may have covered it. Uh this is great information. You've done a great job of painting a picture of what might be and I appreciate that. Um again in in in fundraising and moving between the public and the private sector, my impression is that in certain silos, the small incremental individual donor is becoming more and more impactful. I didn't hear and and again, I know there's a lot of moving parts here.

Are we going to focus on that, you know, the the person who maybe has five bucks a month to contribute but just loves the arts? Have we looked at that? Is that a place where we're going to take a look to bring some funding in as well? Yeah, Mayor and Councilmember Adams, there is a Laura is our expert, right? I at the level of focus you have at different areas and talking about who are our large ones, but we are never going to forget, right?

We're always going to remember our our ground of where we're grounded in our community and whether you have a dollar to give or a hundred dollars to give or a thousand dollars to give, you have a place in this museum cuz it's our museum and that is very impactful to the buy-in to the museum, to the ownership of the museum. I contributed to this museum. It's in my neighborhood. It's in my town. It's in, you know, Maricopa County. It's in Arizona.

All of those things that tie you to an entity and to a mission and a purpose, those are all important and so we'll be looking at all of those things and that's what's over the next year when we talk about fundraising capacity building, that's creating that strategy. How are we going to approach all of these different levels because they are all important.

I I look forward to hearing more about that because I think one of your your challenges will be it's it's easier to get a Mesa resident to say, "Yeah, this is my museum." But this is an Arizona museum. So how do you get that buy-in from somebody in Kingman, somebody in Globe, somebody in Safford? That might be the real challenge to sell it as an Arizona treasure. Um okay, uh all I had. Thank you very much and uh just because I have to pack and leave does not mean I'm not interested.

So, thank you. Thank you. Mr. Adams, is it okay to ask uh you're okay moving this forward? Yes. Okay. Council? I'll bring back Ms. Taylor. It's Thank you. I'm going to actually just I'm going to skip a few of them because I don't want to sequester all the time, which I know I can do sometimes. Um I'm going to try and just focus on some important ones.

I noticed that when we looked at the case studies, we didn't use any of our state's museums as part of those case studies because we have, you know, like the Museum of Musical Instruments, we have um the Phoenix Museum of Art. And I I know that those have gone through some changes. I just Is there a reason we didn't use anything from the state of Arizona? May May I May I counsel member uh Taylor?

Uh previously in the master planning work we did a year ago, a lot of our benchmarking was extensive through those organizations and institutions that you talked about. The the benchmarking that we continue to show right now was really sort of showing our ROI, community engagement, and so forth. In regards to um the institutions that you are that you are speaking to, we do know a lot of uh business intelligence about the members over 400 million um 400 million to create.

It has a huge attendance uh each year. It but it also has huge operating budgets as well. In regards to fundraising, like what's happening in the valley right now, the uh Arizona Science Center is on a 200 million dollar uh capital campaign now and they're and they've been very very successful at it. Um so, when it comes to benchmarking, we're virtually benchmarking against our competition every single way on the project. Okay. Okay, that's helpful. We'll go to the next one.

Um I'm going to skip this, skip this. Because this is the Arizona Natural History Museum, and I know you're giving this presentation specifically to Mesa because it's here in Mesa, and I'm I'm very grateful that we have it currently, and we're looking to see how we could make it bigger, better, etc.

Do Do you have any other cities that have said, "We want to contribute to this because this is for the state, and this is not just for Mesa?" So, Mayor and uh Council member Taylor, again, when we look at our fundraising strategy, the fundraising strategy would actually happen over this next year. So, we haven't reached out to anybody in any relationship, um at this point. Okay. That will be over the next year. Um The last two things I just wanted to to note.

So, I think it's wonderful, um that we, you know, we look at natural history, but I just wanted to make a statement. I was doing some research when I was looking through this presentation, and um I went through the Gallup polling uh site from 2024 to 2025 in their national polling, along with the National Center for um Science and Education and Life Way Research.

And I think it's important to note that as of 2025, 2026, roughly, according to those three sources, 71% of Americans are still strong believers that there is a religious um affiliation with the creation of the world. And when we're looking at only one bias from a Darwinian theory, we are basically excluding an the majority of Americans. So, I am okay with considering this expansion, but on one premise, and I'm going to lock down on this hard.

There has to be more than one theory represented in a natural history museum, and that would include creationism because we are essentially excommunicating the idea of creationism when we say we're only going to look at this from an evolutionary perspective. They are both theories, and they both must be represented fairly if we're going to live with equity and equality for the represented groups that will come and visit this huge iconic museum if we move forward with it.

I need to make that statement very clearly from my perspective, and that is going to be represented not just by me, but many of the residents that I represent in my district, and I would I would argue many of the people in Mesa. They will want to see those theories clearly represented, especially because it's a public museum.

My second question that I'm just going to nail down or my second thing I'm going to nail down is you said there were two years, it will cost $6 million total over the next 2 years that we would proceed forward with essentially the research to see if this project can come together. And you said there were one-time revenues that will pay for this that won't come out of our general budget.

Um I didn't hear exactly how much the foundation was planning to contribute to those revenues, and I want to know where did those one-time revenues come from? So, Mayor and Councilmember Taylor, I'll address the the revenues on the on the budget side first. And so, those are when we work with the city manager and the and the OMB director to look for what the capacity we have. So, different one-time revenues, I think you've heard Brian say a lot of times that's construction sales tax.

Those are revenues that came in higher in one particular area that we weren't anticipating, but maybe that was a blip and not going to be continuation. So, all of those types of things that I think kind of Brian talked about where we have one-time revenues we have received and actualized, but we don't believe they're going to go forward. We don't want to put ongoing expenses into those. Those are uh set aside and looked at the needs of the city.

Usually, we use those things uh those funds on infrastructure. We do we have, you know, we deferred maintenance, all those types of things that we have. So, it's in that same kind of realm. Each year we'll have revenues that we identify that we don't want to put ongoing programming to because we're not sure we'll continue to receive those. Um but we will put those into investment projects, whether it's investing into our infrastructure or investing into new projects.

Um so, those isn't a specific revenue, it's kind of a a group or a category of revenues, if you will. Um over the next 2 years, um we've identified $6 million in city funds. We would continue to work with the with the foundation to identify additional funds that might be able to take us even farther.

Uh do you want to clarify it's not just research over the next 2 years, it's actually starting the design so that we have, if you see the one the final bullet point, architecture and site design work, that would actually be starting the design to make sure that we have um renderings that we can go to the public with. Um if we were to put this on a future bond, we want to make sure that we are bond ready.

So, that would do you say about 5 to 10% design on that to make sure that we have the site work, the electrical, like we've looked for all of those types of things. So, it's not just the research, it's actually starting on the feasibility of the building itself. Got it. Okay. Okay, so just to repeat that, the funds are coming from various one-time sources, essentially. I'm just imagining they're in a bucket. That's what that's the city funds that have been identified.

The design process would actually begin. We're talking feasibility studies, site assessments, renderings, representing to the public. Um that's what those that $6 million over the course of 2 years would go towards. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. And then can someone tell me how much the foundation would like to help with that cost if it's possible? Uh Mayor and Council Member hear a dollar.

I would say that if they were up here, they would like to have great emphasis and help on that one. And so I think they're I think their passion is unbounded. Um but we do need to look at to to see how we set them up for success. It is a partnership, so I do want to make that clear when we're talking about the foundation. Um it is a partnership with the city. So the city has the development team itself.

So when you talk about the staff support, when Laura talked about you need the people who are tracking things, who are doing the um finding the leads, that type of thing. That is a our development team in the Arts and Culture Department. And then when we partner with the foundation and they play a vital part of knowing those relationships and keeping us, you know, on track and bringing that, you know, walking through and being our advocates and looking for those.

So it's it's a partnership between the two of them, but I would say on both sides we're pretty unbounded on what we want to accomplish, but we need to now going forward set some goals. We know what are goals for the next year, what's the goals for the year after that, and that would be what we'd start to work on. And Is it possible that they might be able to offset some of that $6 million that would come from the city if, of course, they were able to?

I mean, is that kind of part of the goal of of moving forward? Mayor and Council Member Taylor, that is exactly the goal of moving forward. So this is what the city has identified on our side. That does not mean that those that's the the all in. The we will like to do as much as we can and as we just develop those relationships, we will be working on that. It is um getting ready for a capital campaign is a lot of effort just for the get ready part.

And then once if you get ready properly, um then you can really take off from there. And so that would be the next steps would be actually planning. Our next steps are to plan our next steps, if that makes sense, when it comes to the funding models. Okay, that's helpful. Thank you so much.

I just want to be encouraging and say I think that we have a lot of opportunities to partner with many different institutions throughout Phoenix, um including things like the Desert Botanical Gardens, some of the other museums, um the the zoo. I mean, they could drive a lot of business to us as we would drive business to them, creating essentially a tourism epicenter in that regard, um because those are kind of all in the same wheelhouse. So, thank you again for the presentation.

Thanks for answering my questions. I'm going to I'm going to hold any of my other questions and I can send them to staff so that other people can have the floor. Thanks so much, Mayor. You're welcome, Ms. Taylor, and the foundation has been listening to you intently. Oh, thank you. You bet. Uh with that, council, if those of us that are left, the survivors, it's been a long presentation.

I know we can get down in the weeds and and I think the ask here is to move forward with the uh whole process. So, I mean, I can get a nod of heads or you can ask some questions if you like or wait till later and do it individually in your office. I do have a letter to read from Ms. Duff. But, uh Ms. Goforth, would you would you your thoughts? Remind me. He he has put on his green light about four times. Real quick, and then I'm I'm happy to. I'm tapping out. Okay. Okay. Um thank you.

Appreciate it. Uh this is a lot This is a lot of information. Um so, I you know, I'll have a lot of questions as we move forward. Um and I'll I'll need a little bit of time to sort of process all of it. But, um, this is certainly a beloved museum, you know, as you pointed out, um, I don't think it even takes a focus group to to know that. So, uh, it's it's I think it was the sole reason my family, when we moved here several years ago, came downtown. Was this Was this museum.

So, um, I think it's important to get this right. It's important to preserve what people love about it, but um, you've presented a beautiful plan, beautiful, and I love the incorporation of, um, both the the land, the earth part, um, and what's been happening here, and the people, and what the people have done over many, many, many generations with what is here. It's a unique place, and I think, um, you've done a good job of presenting how we'll celebrate it, and how we'll educate people on it.

Um, it's ambitious. As well, uh, you know, we I've been told Mesa needs to think bigger, and I I think you guys hit the hit the mark, for sure. Uh, I like it. I like big thinking, um, but it does come with a big price tag, and that that to me is the remain to be seen. You know, there's a lot of potential. You've You've outlined a lot of potential nationally and in Arizona. I hope it's there, you know, um, that to me, uh, is going to be your biggest hurdle.

Uh, certainly, you have to We have to convince the voters that this is this is the direction we should go. That's the first one, and then the go out and and fundraise. Um, what happens if you get down a year one or two on this progress across two years, and you figure out the fundraising capacity may not be there. What then happens? So, Mayor and Councilmember go forth. That's over these two years.

So, when you talk about if you get the public funding and then the fundraising starts, that's actually the reverse order. We would be doing the fundraising first so that when we come two years from now, when we come back to Council, um that we hope to have those partnerships and have those those kind of commitments. If the city funds their side, we commit to the other side. And mine is not in order. And I would hope that that would be the case. Yeah, for sure. You have to make the case first.

So, thank you. why we're going um and you're and you're correct, Councilmember go forth. This is we have to get it right. This is our shot to to get it right and to do service to our city, the region, the state, right? To really do service and to our residents. And we have to do it right. So, we are doing this at a pace to make sure that we do it right and we're not rushing into something.

And so, we've taken this last year just to kind of come up with those concepts like when we're looking at a new building, what should it be based on? We don't want to just build a building and then fill it with stuff, right? That's not that's not the goal. There's a mission, there's an education.

Um so, it has been Natural History Museum staff has really put full effort into what do they see the future of research, the future of education, our K-12 partners and what we do in that and for true K-12 curriculum, um University ASU, U of A, um all of those types of things. So, fundraising is another one of those steps that we need to do it right and we need to bring in the right person, who happens to be sitting right next to me.

Um we need to bring in the right person um to guide us, to set us up for success. Um and that truly is going to be pivotal to this. We can do a great museum, we can do great exhibits, we can have great thoughts and and passions, but we have to make the numbers work at the end of the day. And so, we're also working with Jay um and with Jeff McVay um on those and they've been integral to this as well. We asked them what does the hospitality side look like?

What are you what are you you looking for for downtown Mesa? What does can downtown Mesa use? What is the right, you know, for look at the um hotel? What do we talk about number of rooms? What is the optimum number of rooms? Does that fit into this site? Does that fit onto this building? Um so making sure that we have all the right people in the room. So this is not a one or two person type of project. This is a full regional type of project.

Well, and I think um you've you've offered a couple of good test case but case studies. But I think we and I know it's different but I think we have one here which is the Mac. It is. And so I would like to see more comparison to that. How did that originate? What was the public private um ratios? How did it play out? Did it did it end up how we thought it was going to? Is it is the economic impact supporting the original um uh justification?

I I'm going to need to see a lot more of that because we have that right here in Mesa. I mean, you know, every city is different and draws different but it will tell us the capacity for fundraising. Um it'll give us a lot of insight. Now, granted it's different. I don't even I mean, I guess it's not even considered a museum. And so when you say It's a cultural asset. So when we talk about yeah, so Mayor and Councilwoman um go forth.

When we talk about these type of entities, we're talking about cultural assets, right? So whether it's science, we just happen to have the STEM area. It has a little bit better probably in philanthropy is what we're seeing. But whether it's STEM, whether it's science, whether it's culture, whether it's arts, you know, ideas of children's museum. So all of that kind of cultural amenities, if we think about cultural amenities, um all fit into kind of that category.

And when we look at the Mesa Arts Center, if we if we think back to what was there on that piece of land right before the Mesa Arts Center. And there was no light rail and there was no ASU. Um you know, we didn't have these other amenities. Why do we have these amenities? Because we have the Mesa Arts Center was the catalyst. Um and at that time we actually went out to the voters. It was the quality of life tax um that paid for the construction of that of the Mesa Arts Center.

And then the foundation was created as well and there was a capital campaign to help offset some of those costs. It wasn't to the magnitude of this um but it also was coming into an area that there wasn't any uh we had the idea museum was very small. It was the children's museum the youth museum um the natural history museum was the Southwest museum. So it was more regional. It wasn't quite statewide. So we had we had amenities but they were local amenities if you think about them that way.

They weren't regional amenities yet. And the Mesa Arts Center brought us into that regional national kind of focus. Um it was the catalyst um for downtown. Um the quality of life tax was um it was a half cent sales tax total. A quarter of it was a capital um component that paid for the we paid for the construction that sunset after 10 years and then the um operation on is ongoing and that's what's paying like public safety and um fire right now.

Yeah and if I Mayor Councilman go Councilman go forth. If I might may also add that our focus was more local at that time for fundraising. And and to answer your question it was about a $5 million investment from the public up from private uh donations but it wasn't a $100 million project a $95 million project. So we really weren't thinking at the same scale at that time uh looking at a a different stack of funding.

It was uh city funding through a tax that was pretty much and collected at that point. So, the need wasn't necessarily there identified as early um on this um this uh level as we are uh looking at this project. The other thing I want to say is that when you ask about um economic impact of the MAC, and we are measuring that in our new KPIs. We're moving toward that and and quantifying that over the next year or two.

Um that uh adding another uh cultural asset compounds what the Mesa Arts Center did, right? So, these aren't necessarily separate entities that live their own, you know, in their own existence. These now start to compound the economic development the economic possibilities of a city that has these world-class, certainly regional or or national level of institutions.

So, we don't want to just say, "Okay, now let's let's talk about the Mesa Arts Center and talk about it as like, "What is the totality of the impact?" You know, we're doing a a second phase of expansion at the i.d.e.a. Museum. So, um how we uh progress through building out our institutions is the compounding of of the success that the city sees on the economic side of arts and culture. I understand.

And I I certainly support um you know, I I support the investment and in arts and culture for sure. Our I know that uh a majority of our residents appreciate it, expect it, quite frankly quite frankly, and um and enjoy it. But, um the dollar amount certainly has to be justified, and and that'll be something that we we um you know, we'll have many a discussion.

Just really quick, on on one of your slides you have 175,000 annual visitors to the museum, and you say it's the largest city natural history city municipal natural history museum in the country. You mean by visitorship? No, I don't know. Um Um Mayor Councilman Foote, 170 That's annual visitors to the museum here, uh so on site. So we get 175,000 per annum here here in the state. We are the only uh natural history museum in the state of Arizona. Did That clarify it?

So what is largest city municipal natural history museum in the country? Absolutely. We are the only uh local government funded natural history museum in the United States. So the largest and the only? Yeah, and the only, which is which is incredibly unique. It's really unique. That is unique, apparently. Because, you know, like the Candace was talking about, our research and collections are world-class. They're based on our region. They're incredibly valuable.

A lot of the functions that we do to support the city, like development services, are are economic development things as well that we do do as well. So So are most of them then regionally operated? Yeah. Yeah. does that make, you know, Well, yeah, it it's very It was It's very few wholly-owned municipal uh of this level um museums in the states. Very, very few. There are a lot public uh public-private partnerships, like say natural history in LA and so forth.

But yeah, so So the pool is very small, and then we're the only natural history museum. Okay. Yeah. That's Spencer. Uh Council or Mayor Council, um and just to reiterate what Simon is saying, there are many natural history museums that are uh owned or run by counties or by state level or just are pure nonprofits.

The uniqueness of this project is that it's a city-owned municipal natural history museum, and you just don't see museums of this size and scale owned by a a city and especially with natural history. Well, I mean is that something I'm going to steal Council member Summers thunder because I think this was his question, too. Is that something we want to explore is expanding that um base uh you know, I mean if we are if our reach is so large, maybe the support should be large, too.

I I just throw it out there. I'm not saying we need to sell our our assets. I don't know. I think so Mayor and Council member Goforth, I think that's what we'll see um so so Spencer will be doing the the economic impact study, right? And as we look at that, what is the impact and what is that circle of impact? And so I think once we know we can actually show what that circle of impact is, that might draw in other partners. Right?

Um if we can show them and say this is um if if we do this and and we are the lead and we can get this done, you are going to benefit over here. Um so maybe there's a partnership that we can do for those types of things. So I think that is again part of our next step that Well, now that we know what we're talking about, right? A year a year ago we just decided that we needed a new building. Um that was the only decision that we had made.

So now that we go to Now we actually have a concept of what we think that looks like and the amenities it has, now the next step is that now what is that economic impact and what partners does that draw to the table? And I can cite a couple of examples from our experience.

One is that we worked recently with the city of Colorado Springs to uh rebuild the summit complex atop Pikes Peak, which obviously is a huge tourism driver in that community and because of the leadership, frankly, of the mayor of Colorado Springs, some of the other municipalities and the county surrounding Pikes Peak also uh invested in that project. And a long time ago we worked on a Beaches Museum uh was located in Jacksonville Beach.

But if you know that part of the country at all, there are a number of municipalities that go up and down the beaches from Ponte Vedra to Mayport. And while the lion's share of public investment in that project came from Jacksonville Beach, each of the other municipalities also participated proportionately as well. So, there are good models for that. Good. That's good to hear. I think that's that's maybe a certainly glad to hear that that's something to explore. Something that helps offset.

I know we're all tired, but I I'd like to see a little bit more detail on the $6 million. I mean, that's a that's a not a small amount for over the next 2 years. I know you talked high-level where that's going, but I'd like to see a little bit more detail on that. We'll get that back to you. That would be great. But I certainly encourage and support the project. I I think it's extremely exciting and I'm hopeful.

I'm hopeful that we have that private excitement too that gets us over where we need to be financially for it. So, appreciate all the hard work and and the presentation today. Thank you, Ms. Gulliford. Vice Mayor. Thank you for covering that for me so I don't have to do it. I'll just add one more thing that we have to look at. That building you're in is it historic 1937 former City Hall. We have to consider that as well.

So, I just as we have these apparently more meetings uh we need to consider where and how we place this. And that'd be one of my concerns. I know it was the police and fire station back in the day as well. And um historic buildings are integral part of our community. So, however the architect can integrate that into his design would be great. Move it up to the terrace. Is that going to work for you now? Yeah. Okay. I have a letter from Ms. Duff I'd like to read.

She says, "I'm sorry I can't be with you today. This is such an important project to Mesa that I have asked the mayor to include my comments in this study session. I'm in full support of the Arizona Museum of Natural History Redevelopment Plan.

Over the past 3 and 1/2 years, this has evolved from a $180 million dollar concept into a roughly $300 million mixed-use destination museum, hotel, retail, and restaurant structured as a 1/3 public, philanthropic, and private partner private investments, 1/3 each. That is the kind of innovative financing model that positions Mesa as a statewide leader, setting the standard for how cities leverage public, philanthropic, and private investments to deliver transformational projects.

Think about what we're building. We're building a global competitive destination anchored by 40 plus years of irreplaceable research collections, intellectual property, a facility that will drive overnight stays, new jobs, and tax revenue while reducing long-term resilience on the general fund. A project aligned with over 8 billion in statewide tourism and entertainment investment happening right now. Investment we need to be positioned to capture.

This has been done right, community engagement, expert expert advisers, phase delivery with clear council decision points, and strong governance throughout. We gave Arizona Museum of Natural History the go-ahead about a year ago. Council members Goforth and Adams have provided wise oversight to the museum for their roles as city council liaisons over the past 3 and 1/2 years.

In the same time frame former Mesa Vice Mayors Walters, Kavanaugh, and Luna have provided solid leadership to the Arizona Museum of Natural History Foundation, which has been the non-profit partner to the city since 1991. We are at a decision point. Without action, we risk facility loss of competitiveness, walking away from decades of prior public investment in an institution that stands alone. The only natural history museum in the state of Arizona.

No other city in Arizona can tell this story, only Mesa can. This is our opportunity to believe in ourselves, to invest in another world-renowned project, and to let Mesa shine on a global stage once again. I believe this project will be viewed the way we now view the Mesa Arts Center. A legacy investment that put Mesa on the map globally. This is our moment to do that again. I urge your support. Thank you. Council Member Gent off. I'll also add that Mr.

Heredia also cannot be here and he expressed his support for it as well. The other things I'm just going to add I know our meeting's been long this morning, but I'm pretty overwhelmed by the great presentation, the professional staff that have come from far away, and recently I was in DC and I had toured the Museum of Natural History in DC with April here back in the back and um yeah, and Spencer, too. And you know, it's overwhelming to see that museum and exhibit spaces.

We know we can't compete with that, but what we can do is elevate Mesa to another higher standard with this type of architecture and development. The architecture is phenomenal. You know, we have 22 native tribes in Arizona. All of them should be a partner in this process.

As you I think we're unleashing the potential of what this can be and perhaps through the work of the philanthropic side of it we can create a museum of renown and historical I mean being a Mesa native I'm I'm proud to use a parcel of our city owned property for this purpose. As long as we save our historic structures.

But with that said I mean events food and beverage the hotel if that you know if all this comes into play it will really create a vibrant more vibrant downtown than any of our neighboring communities will ever have and expect. So I support that. I think you have the go ahead from all of council to move forward and then I know you've taken detailed notes about what the council expects in return. Okay. So Thank you Mayor and thank you council. Okay. With that I think you're done and but we're not.

So I'm going to move over to next is current events and conferences attended. Council member do you have anything you wish to share? No. Okay. As the clears yesterday was the Mesa business builders small business networking event with the uh our economic development department J O'Donnell at Mesa Chamber uh the two-year anniversary and then I attended a Westwood agricultural FFA advisory board meeting. Uh item four is to convene an executive session regarding the interviews for city magistrate.

Is there a motion to convene an e-session? So moved. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Ms. Goforth. All in favor say I. I. I. Thank you, Ms. Taylor. All right, we're going to move over to the executive conference room, and Ms. Taylor will see you in there or hear you in there. Okay. Thank you. All right. Bye-bye. I'm on it. I can see you. Oh. I can see you on here. Thank you, Ms. Taylor.

Uh we are now reconvening our study session, and our next item is to provide direction on the position of the city magistrate. And I want to thank all the candidates who applied and came for the interview process. I know it's been a long morning already. You're all very good, exceptional candidates for this position, and it's always uh we are always in the difficult position of only being able to name one person this time for this uh next magistrate.

For those who do not get the position today, I hope you try again in the future. With that said, is there a motion to place one of the candidates on a future city council agenda for appointment? If so, would you state the candidate's name for the motion? I move to put Jacob Brown on the um agenda. I don't know. Okay, for city council. For city Okay, that was a motion that's seconded by Vice Mayor. All in favor say I. I. I. I.

Okay, that motion passes unanimously that Jacob Brown will be placed on the next future city council agenda. Motion passes unanimously. Uh is there a motion to adjourn? So moved. I second. Thank you. I second. Thank you, Ms. Taylor. Thank you, Mr. Summers. All in favor say I. I. I. I. Okay, we are adjourned. Thank you, everyone.