The Phoenix Art Museum bought three nearby office buildings with the goal of moving administrative space out of the main museum campus.
The museum bought the buildings, located at Alvarado and Coronado roads, for $3.38 million from the Girls Scouts-Arizona Cactus-Pine Council, according to real estate database Vizzda. The buildings have long served as the Girl Scouts offices, but the group is planning to move to the Bob & Renee Parsons Leadership Center for Girls and Women at Camp South Mountain.
“This is a great opportunity for the museum to consider what the future for us holds,” Jeremy Mikolajczak, CEO of the Phoenix Art Museum, said. “We can think of how we serve the community. We could have larger classrooms, more interactive space.”
The museum
has very little classroom space for programs or family activities. The new buildings will give the museum options for adding that space to the main campus as it grows.
“We have an incredible amount of space dedicated to our collection, so whenever we make expansions, we have to think of how it is serving the community,” he said. The museum’s most recent expansion was in 2010.
The museum has not outgrown its existing campus and the move is proactive, Mikolajczak said. The Girl Scouts will continue to use the offices until its new space is ready, and Mikolajczak said the museum could choose to lease the space to other nonprofits until the museum needs it. The process will be a “multi-year timeline.”
Mikolajczak said the purchase gives the museum a chance to study its existing buildings to determine the best use of space and what it needs to add.
The buildings were built in 1950 and 1966, and the museum plans to preserve them.
“We are the keepers of stories, the keepers of history,” Mikolajczak said of the museum’s mission. “These structures also tell that story; we can preserve the character of what was here.”
The Girl Scouts will use proceeds from the sale to grow the organization’s presence in the community.
“Phoenix Art Museum is an incredible partner to ensure the legacy of the buildings continues to uplift our community," Girl Scouts-Arizona Cactus-Pine Council co-CEOs Mary Mitchell and Christina Spicer said in a statement. “The sale of the buildings is a strategic step forward for our mission. Net revenue from the sale will create more opportunities to place council staff directly in communities alongside girls and volunteers by improving access to meeting space, strengthening connections and enhancing customer service.”
Reach the reporter at cvanek@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @CorinaVanek.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix Art Museum acquires longtime Girl Scouts offices | Exclusive
