J Magazine Winter 2018

n Have a total estimated impact of $101.1
million a year on Duval County’s economy
alone while generating nearly 1,000 jobs.
That’s an impressive windfall for
a potential aquarium in Downtown
Jacksonville.
And here’s a compelling conclusion
about the potential impact of that possible
windfall:
“The Jacksonville Aquarium will
support the expansion of the regional
tourism economy and infrastructure,”
declared ConsultEcon, “and … create a
new, high-quality destination attraction
in Duval County that will bring additional
tourists to the community, thereby
enhancing the City of Jacksonville and the
region as a visitor destination.”
The alluring thing about these
numbers, Maloney said, is that they’re
not projections about an undertaking
that hasn’t been done before — or done
successfully before in big city downtowns.
Before joining the Jacksonville Zoo
and Gardens, Maloney worked at the
Bronx Zoo in New York and the Audubon
Nature Institute in New Orleans —
two institutions that simultaneously
operate both a zoo and aquarium, just as
Jacksonville’s zoo would do if a Downtown
aquarium is built.
“They’re both huge successes,”
Maloney said of the zoo/aquarium setups
in the Bronx and New Orleans.
“We’d be able to take the same
vision that we’ve brought to making the
Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens so popular,”
Maloney said, “and bring that same vision
to making an aquarium a hit, too.”
challenges
remain
OK, so thousands of people
enthusiastically voted more than four
years ago to support the idea of a
Downtown aquarium.
And a feasibility study done more than
three years ago by a respected national
economic consulting firm objectively
found a Downtown aquarium to be a
highly promising and lucrative plan.
So why as 2019 approaches ever closer
in the windshield is there no sign that
a Downtown aquarium will be greenlighted,
much less actually built anytime
soon?
The challenges remain clear — and
daunting.
Here’s the top three:
n There isn’t — yet — a solid
base of funding to raise the estimated
Top 5 Must-See
Aquariums in
the COUNTRY
Early this year, Attractions of America
ranked the country’s best aquariums.
1. Georgia Aquarium
Atlanta
Opened in 2005, the Georgia Aquarium (above)
is one of the biggest of its kind in the entire world.
The aquarium holds more than 500 different kinds
of sea life, including fascinating creatures like groupers,
whale sharks and beluga whales.
www.georgiaaquarium.org
2. Monterey Bay Aquarium
Monterey, Calif.
Founded in 1984, the Monterey Bay Aquarium is
situated on the site of what used to be a sardine
cannery. Nearly two million people come here
every year to see more than 600 different species
of animals and plants.
www.montereybayaquarium.org
3. Shedd Aquarium
Chicago
Opened in 1930, the Shedd Aquarium houses more
than 25,000 fish, with its 5 million gallons of water.
Shedd is the first inland facility to have its own
permanent display of saltwater fish. More than 2
million people visit every year.
www.sheddaquarium.org
4. National Aquarium
Baltimore
Opened in 1981, the National Aquarium sees more
than 1.5 million visitors every year. The aquarium
tanks hold over 2 million gallons of water, and
more than 17,000 creatures that represent more
than 700 different species.
www.aqua.org
5. Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies
Gatlinburg, Tenn.
Ripley’s Aquarium has more than 10,000 sea
creatures. Some of its exhibits include a tropical
rainforest, a shark lagoon and a coral reef, as well
as giant octopus, sea anemones, jellyfish, penguins,
sharks and rays.
www.ripleyaquariums.com
$1002million to build a Downtown
aquarium.
In the years since AquaJax’s heady,
victorious coming-out moment at the
2014 One Spark festival, the nonprofit
and other aquarium backers have had no
shortage of conversations with influential
figures and power brokers in the private
sector about creating a pathway to fund a
Downtown aquarium.
“We’d prefer for an aquarium to
be funded primarily through private
donations,” Piltz said, adding that most
of the backers’ conversations with the
city about the aquarium have centered
on land since the preferred site — the
Shipyards — is city-owned.
But Piltz acknowledged that effort has
been slow to get the city’s moneyed sector
to pen big checks or pull out thick wads of
money for an aquarium.
And the bottom line is that a prominent
funder is needed to prime the funding
pump for a Downtown aquarium — and
take it from popular proposal to tangible
reality.
“I think that if we get that one first
person to say, ‘You know what, here’s X
amount of dollars,’” Piltz said, “it’s not
going to be that hard to raise the private
money to build this.
“But,” added Piltz, “getting that first
person with the largest amount of money
is the hardest to get.”
Maloney said he has always assumed
it would “take a decade anyway” to get
a Downtown aquarium from its early
proposal stage to actual constructed
reality.
He said one key is for aquarium
backers to keep making the case for why
an aquarium makes such economic
sense.
“To me, an aquarium is one of the most
solid capital investments you can make in
Downtown Jacksonville,” he added.
“Just look across the country —
Baltimore, Atlanta, Chattanooga, New
Orleans, the list goes on. If you set a
realistic budget and stick close to it
throughout the process of building an
aquarium, you’re going to be successful.”
n There is no defined location — yet
— that is a surefire certainty to be the site
of a possible Downtown aquarium.
Clearly, the site that aquarium
backers would most prefer as the home
of a Downtown aquarium is the nowvacant
Shipyards because it’s a sprawling
property that could comfortably fit a huge
facility and is flush against the majestic St.
Johns River and Jacksonville’s waterfront.
GEORGIA AQUARIUM
42
J MAGAZINE | WINTER 2018-19