Mark Oprea
The space has been mostly empty for the past decade, mostly due to its cost and square footage.
The Museum of Illusions, a global chain of eye puzzle spaces, will be setting up shop in the May's largest space facing Public Square, at 184 Euclid Avenue, when it opens in June of next year. The move comes nearly a decade after the space's last tenant, the Cadillac Ranch restaurant, shut its doors in 2014, after just six years in business.
Claiming to be the "largest and fastest-growing chain of privately-held museums in the world," according to its website, the Museum of Illusions first opened in 2015 in Zagreb, Croatia, which sees over 300,000 visits per year. Since then, the museum's "edutainment" brand has sprouted to over 40 locations worldwide, with 15 currently in the U.S., including Las Vegas, Kansas City and Scottsdale.
Cleveland's opening would be among a string of eight museums "coming soon," its website says, across the country, a surge prompted by the company's franchisee model, which touts the accessibility and start-up ease of a fast food brand.
The museum's inclusion on Public Square, buttressed by Fahrenheit's opening across the way and Sherwin Williams' headquarters on the west end, could help rebound lost foot traffic from the pandemic.
Gigantic spaces like 184 Euclid, which is roughly 400 feet from front to back, are tough sells for leasers eyeing downtown areas. A great bulk of retail that shut down over the past three years were often restaurants—those struggling with revenue and worker retention.
“The addition of the Museum of Illusions to Downtown will be fantastic," Audrey Gerlach, vice president of economic development at Downtown Cleveland, Inc., told Scene. "It will create a nice connection between Euclid Avenue and Public Square, and offer a unique, year-round experience for people of all ages.
"This is exactly the type of experiential retail that brings people downtown," she added, "and invites them to linger: I think it will thrive.”
As for its contents, the museum will tout over a dozen rooms heavy on visual trickery and color, from its famed Infinity Room—one covered totally in triangular mirrors—to its Ames Room, which toys with growing and shrinking furniture.
The concept, one mixing lessons for the brain and an escape from screens, has financial legs: the edutainment market, driven by virtual reality and the gamification of learning, is projected to hit $17.7 billion in the next six years.
“It is basically a collection of mind-altering exhibits, artwork, and experiential-type interactive entertainment, things that just defy reality, where you look at something and say, ‘That doesn’t look right,’" Jonathan Benjamin, Museum of Illusions' CEO, said in a prepared statement. "So, it causes your mind to have to alter its own sense of reality."
Both Bedrock and CRESCO, companies involved in the brokering process, did not respond to a request for comment. Museum of Illusions corporate also did not respond to requests for an interview.
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