J Magazine Winter 2018

AQUAJAX
The apex of those efforts came during
the 2014 One Spark crowd-funding festival
when spectators loved AquaJax’s concept
for a Downtown aquarium so much that
they voted it No.1 in the science category
— which earned Aquajax more than
$13,000 in award money to pursue the
project.
“That was the moment we realized that,
‘Hey we all know we need an aquarium in
our Downtown, but everyone else in this
city knows we need it, too,’” Piltz said of
AquaJax’s One Spark victory.
The winning vote was a sign that, as
Hammond aptly declared in a letter to
The Florida Times-Union Editorial Board
earlier this year, many in the city realized
that a “world class aquarium will provide
the numbers of people necessary to start
the revitalization so desperately needed
Downtown.”
Or “serve as a beacon to … (create) a
success story in our Downtown,” as Harrell
put it in his own Times-Union letter of
several months ago.
The One Spark victory led AquaJax to
commission a June 2015 feasibility study
by ConsultEcon Inc., a Massachusettsbased
firm.
“People may talk or debate how
we go about getting an aquarium
in Downtown Jacksonville, but I
don’t know anyone who doesn’t
like the idea of an aquarium in
Downtown Jacksonville.”
Dan Maloney
The Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens
The study determined that if built at a
budget of $100 million in the Shipyards
district, a 150,000-square-foot, 1 milliongallon
aquarium in Downtown Jacksonville
would:
n Draw an average of up to 1.062
million visitors a year.
n Bring in as much as $14.6 million in
total revenues during an average, stable
year of operation.
An artist’s rendering of the world-class aquarium
that AquaJax has been to trying to develop in
Downtown Jacksonville.
WINTER 2018-19 | J MAGAZINE 41