Hormel Foods Corp. expects 125,000 people to visit the new Spam Museum between now and April 22, 2017, and they expect those people to be a boon for Austin too.

“We’re excited to have the museum here in downtown Austin,” Hormel Foods Corp. President and Chief Operating Officer James Snee said. “It’s great for the community and it’s great for the company.”

Hormel Foods Corp. cracked the can on its new, 14,000-square-foot Spam Museum at 101 Third Ave. NE as it opened at 10 a.m. Friday.

“This truly is a global event,” Snee said.

While Hormel and community officials are excited for people to see everything the new museum has to offer, a big piece for Austin is the museum’s draw, as Snee said he’s pleased it’ll attract tourists from around the world to the heart of Austin.

A boon for Austin

When Snee moved to Austin in 1992, the original Spam Museum was located at Oak Park Mall in a relatively small store space. It moved in 2001 to 1101 N. Main St. next, where it was connected to Hormel’s south corporate office.

Snee noted the old museum didn’t take full advantage of the tourism opportunities in Austin, because many people simply got off the freeway and then left after going to the museum.

By bringing it downtown, it will attract more opportunities for local businesses and destinations downtown and around Austin.

“It also gives us the opportunity to bring more business downtown, so obviously coming through the Spam Museum, getting a chance to see some of the wonderful arts and culture this town has and also partake in some of the great restaurants downtown,” Snee said. “It was a way for us to really support the community in even a bigger way than we do today.”

Snee said the museum serves as a great example of Hormel’s significant role in the community.

“It makes us feel good,” Snee said. “We’re an integral part of the community, we know that. It’s a big responsibility, we appreciate that. But it’s also a way for us to share Spam around the globe. It truly is an iconic, global brand that’s been around for a long time.”

Vision 2020’s Destination Downtown committee approached Hormel officials in fall 2013 about using the site of a 2009 fire — which had been owned by the Austin Port Authority after the fire — as a new location for the Spam Museum.

With the museum primed to open, city officials hope the increased tourism, along with several other major projects through Vision 2020, will continue Austin’s current growth.

“That’s going to be a huge asset for the downtown areas; it gives the downtown area a true anchor,” Austin Area Chamber of Commerce Director Sandy Forstner previously told the Herald.

History meets modern

Snee is excited for the people of Austin and people from around the world to come and see the new museum’s modern design.

The museum includes some old favorites from the past museum, like the Supporting Our Troops exhibit which is dedicated to those who’ve served in the U.S. Military with a focus on Spam’s role in World War II.

“You’ll see that we’ve saved some of the best from the previous Spam Museum and we’ve added some really great new interactive attractions

Snee, the former head of Hormel’s international group, said his favorite exhibit was the World Market, which highlights the museum’s reach across 44 countries.

But the museum also aims to embrace modern, social media-driven culture.

Can Central, a circular area immediately inside the museum features several displays of past Spam-themed items mixed in with touch screens. People can use them to browse and email a myriad of recipes to themselves, or they can share their own Spam-stories or check out others posted to social media using the tags #spammuseum, #spamstory and #spambrand.

“As you get a chance today to go through this new, interactive museum, you’ll see that all the great work done by so many great people has far exceeded any of our expectations,” Snee said.

Looking ahead

With this year also marking Hormel’s 125th anniversary, the goal is to to have 125,000 people in the free museum in its first 12 months.

The company is also preparing to kickoff its 125th anniversary and they’ll be having a large community event on July 29 featuring The Band Perry.

“This is a great way to celebrate this iconic brand with Spam fans all over the globe,” Snee said.

The museum will be open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m., though Hormel may later look into the museum being open until 8 p.m. on Thursdays to give the Austin residents a chance to visit after work.

The opening comes about a year after Hormel broke ground on April 21, 2015, on the new Spam Museum downtown on the east side of North Main Street.

That celebration will peak on July 29 when country stars The Band Perry headline a free community celebration concert. The performance is planned at the grassy space between the Mower County Jail and Justice Center and the Historic Paramount Theatre along Fourth Avenue Northeast. An exact time has not been set.

Nicole Behne, Hormel’s marketing director for grocery products, previously noted Hormel is already looking for ways for the company to be more involved with downtown events through the museum, especially with things like Vision 2020’s annual downtown summer kickoff.