Success feels sweet for the Museum of Ice Cream. The fast-growing chain is planning its first ground-up location in the nation's second-biggest market after years of expanding into repurposed sites across the country.
Los Angeles-based investment firm CIM Group has broken ground on a permanent hub for the Museum of Ice Cream in its home city at 5252 West Adams Blvd. The 23,000-square-foot outpost marks a return to the city for the experiential retail concept after a 2017 pop-up in downtown Los Angeles — its second U.S. location at the time — drew large crowds of visitors craving a fun, indoor experience in the summer, ice cream included.
“This is where it all changed for us — our LA pop-up redefined what immersive could be,” co-founder Maryellis Bunn said in a statement. “Now we return with scale, permanence and a new level of imagination.”
The business now has six locations, including one international outpost in Singapore, with a seventh spot planned for Area15 in Las Vegas; that planned location will be its largest to date at 30,000 square feet.
CIM Group will continue to own the West Adams museum after its planned opening next year. It's the first location that is being purpose built for the Museum of Ice Cream; the firm has previously repurposed existing retail sites for expansion.
The Los Angeles building is designed to feature a pink-glass facade and 15 immersive installations, including a three-story double helix slide, and what it claims is the world’s largest sprinkle pool.
The museum is part of an increasingly competitive field of experiential, non-shopping concepts expanding into retail hubs nationwide as some traditional stores shrink in response to shifting consumer habits. In San Diego, the Museum of Illusions recently opened its 61st global location and first in California in a space vacated by Urban Outfitters. Additionally, Netflix is bringing its brick-and-mortar entertainment venue, Netflix House, to Las Vegas as well as opening up the first two locations in Philadelphia and Dallas later this year.
Figure 8, the parent company of the Museum of Ice Cream, is also cooking up a pickleball-based social club concept called Home Quart, according to the firm's website; specifics are not yet available.
Pop-up goes permanent
The Museum of Ice Cream's signature blend of sensory installations, social media backdrops, and playful interactivity has drawn tourists, celebrities and influencers to locations across the country. The concept combines entertainment, food and design in ways that extend beyond transactional retail and into cultural placemaking, according to Bunn.
“This project is about more than just ice cream — it’s about building a cultural landmark,” Bunn said.
The flagship is part of the Museum of Ice Cream's broader growth strategy to plant more permanent, architecturally significant destinations across the globe.
Since debuting as a pop-up in New York City in 2016, the company has evolved into a global operation with locations in Chicago, Miami, Boston, Austin, Texas, and abroad in Singapore. The Austin location in a Simon–owned mixed-use center will close this summer when its lease ends, to be replaced by an upscale restaurant. The museum is scouting for a new space in Texas.
The 2017 LA pop-up served as the brand’s California debut, and the new West Adams flagship expands that original vision with installations themed around the Santa Monica Pier, a Tiki bar featuring animatronic fish and a towering slide that cuts through all three stories.
Visitors get unlimited sweet treats during their time at the museum, including the company's signature "ice cream hot dog."
Sweet addition
The project lands in a neighborhood undergoing rapid transformation. Once a more affordable suburban neighborhood, West Adams is now home to chef-driven restaurants like Alta Adams, independent bakeries, coffee roasters and retail. It sits between La Brea and Fairfax, in a zone CIM Group calls the center of the city. The new museum will replace a low-rise commercial building.
“This area has become a culinary corridor,” Museum of Ice Cream's CEO Manish Vora said in a statement. “We’re excited to add to the creativity and energy of the neighborhood.”
CIM Group has heavily invested in the area and previously considered an office project for the site before pivoting to retail-entertainment. The investment firm is positioning the museum as a pedestrian-friendly anchor designed to draw both locals and tourists to West Adams.
The concept "brings a fun and accessible experience to the area as well as great ice cream,” said CIM Co-Founder Shaul Kuba in a statement.
Retail construction across Los Angeles has been slow, with developers leaning heavily on mixed-use or adaptive reuse. Just 648,000 square feet of retail is under construction citywide, down 1% from a year ago, according to CoStar data. By comparison, Houston has 3.7 million square feet underway, with Phoenix and New York also outpacing L.A.