(AllHipHop News) Harlem is set to be the future home of the Hip Hop Hall of Fame.
The nonprofit museum and educational institution announced it won a bid to acquire a building and development site in the New York City neighborhood.
Phase I of the facility is expected to open in February 2018, according to the HHHOF development team.
“The preliminary plan includes a ground floor themed HHHOF café, gallery, visitors bureau, and retail gift store with a second floor HHHOF Museum, event space, offices, and multi-media studio for film and television content production in partnership with the HHHOF Arts & Media Youth Academy students that will be training for careers in tech and media, while producing real-life content for the museum, and the hip hop television channel network,” stated JT Thompson, Founder of the Hip Hop Hall of Fame + Museum.
Planning for Phase II includes a 20-story high complex featuring the Hall of Fame, museum, 5-Star Hotel, retail mall, gift shop, arcade, TV studios, sports bar, restaurant, and concert lounge.
The goal is to have the Hall serve up to 1 million local, national, and international visitors ever year.
HHHOF is also launching a $150 million capital fundraising campaign to complete the acquisition of the Harlem building and development site.
The Capital Campaign Committee is establishing discussions with veteran industry executives including MCA’s Ernie Singleton, Giant Records’ Cassandra Mills, RCA’s Kevin Evans, sports agent Aaron Goodwin, Sony’s Demmette Guidry, and more.
Historic items for the Hip Hop Hall of Fame + Museum are being collected and cataloged.
Eventual exhibitions at the location are likely to include memorabilia from the HHHOF archives, the Grammy Museum, Cornell University’s Hip Hop Collection, the Harvard Hip Hop Archive, the NYU Hip Hop Education Center, the Smithsonian Institute Museum, the University of Houston, the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, and other private collections.
