VENTURA : City Enters Bid for Southwest Museum
Proposing two ocean-view properties as potential sites for the sought-after Southwest Museum, Ventura on Friday joined four other Ventura County cities in bidding for the acclaimed cultural facility.
Ventura made its formal bid just three days before Monday’s deadline. County cities already expressing interest are Thousand Oaks, Fillmore, Camarillo and Oxnard.
The 79-year-old museum, which contains a world-class collection of American Indian artifacts and a research library, is considering leaving Los Angeles and has invited 140 cities to send in bids.
The museum intends to spend more than $35 million on a 100,000-square-foot building to house its collection. Ventura selected two undeveloped properties that meet the museum’s requirements: 12.5 acres on a bluff off Sanjon Road and 20 acres at Ventura Harbor.
The city would buy the privately owned bluff property or take control of the harbor site, which is leased by the Ventura Port District, and then lease either property to the museum “at virtually no cost,” said Mary Lou Schill, a supervisor in the city’s community services department.
In wooing the museum, Ventura is pitching its freeway access and Indian past.
“We’re rich in Chumash heritage,” Schill said. “I think we’ll be attractive to the museum.”
By Aug. 30, the museum will select a short list of candidates, who will have until Nov. 1 to submit a detailed proposal.
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