Jellyfish, octopus and sharks: Kansas City Zoo gets the OK to build $75M aquarium
Kansas City parks officials gave the green light Tuesday for the zoo to move forward with plans to build a $75 million aquarium.
The approval is a significant step for the Friends of the Kansas City Zoo, which has been working toward the project since 2014, said Executive Director Randy Wisthoff.
Wisthoff said he hopes to complete designs and begin construction next year in order to open the aquarium in 2023.
But first the zoo needed the city to sign off on any capital improvements costing more than $500,000, he said. The Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners approved that spending, Tuesday.
The Friends of the Zoo has hired a designer for the 60,000-square-foot, 600,000 gallon aquarium.
“Our story is that there’s basically one ocean. It’s different oceans but all that water’s interconnected,” Wisthoff said. “It starts on a coastline and you see shore animals … and we take you down to the bottom of the ocean and there’s a jellyfish exhibit and we bring you back up and the visit culminates on a sea otter pool.”
In between, Wisthoff said, the zoo is planning to bring in animals from around the world, including a giant octopus and sharks.
Designs for the project are not yet completed and some fundraising still needs to be done, Wisthoff said. After that is finished, the zoo will need to find a contractor before beginning construction.
In 2018, the Kansas City Council voted to contribute $7 million in funding for the project. However, Wisthoff said, the city never found the money in its budget to contribute.
Instead, $45 million for the aquarium will come from the existing zoo-district sales tax, while $30 million will come from private funding.
The Kansas City area has seen several large aquariums proposed and discarded over the years, including one overlooking the Missouri River, the West Bottoms and as part of the stalled Mission Gateway project in Johnson County. The only one that was realized is the Sea Life aquarium, which opened in Crown Center in 2012.
This story was originally published November 10, 2020 at 4:18 PM.
