Aquarium & Children's Museum for Downtown...

[tufsu1]

For a successful, yet extremely small urban aquarium, look no farther than Charleston's.

Ridiculously small, basically two tanks, but between the water exhibits and rotating animal exhibits + it's incorporation of the river, they are quite a hit.

sorry but I would hardly call the one in Charleston extremely small...its basically 300' long by 100' wide and 3 stories tall...which translates into more than 90,000 square feet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Carolina_Aquarium

[ben says]

It's literally a two tank exhibit, with a few individual fish tanks places throughout. Really amending MOSH to incorporate the river and add some tanks could almost get you there.

[krazeeboi]

^Agreed. The sort of thing that St. Augustine is doing is the exact same type of thing that hurts Atlanta, when different municipalities don't work together. St. Augustine needs to get behind Jacksonville's aquarium.

Not to be cold, but despite being older, St. Augustine is Jacksonville's bedroom community, not the other way around.

Not quite the same thing as Atlanta; no other city in metro Atlanta is a draw in and of itself, whereas St. Augustine is. With a much more historic and happening downtown, it presents real competition to downtown Jacksonville.

[blizz01]

^ Agreed - but I certainly thought otherwise for a moment when my daughter talked me into going to the American Girl Store in Alpharetta last summer  .....

[CityLife]

Northern St. Johns County is a bedroom community for Jacksonville. St. Augustine not so much. I used to work in St. Augustine, and a lot of people down there rarely, if ever go to Jacksonville and don't consider themselves to be from Jax. They pretty much have their own self-sustaining economy down there, primarily based on tourism, Flagler College, artists, health care, industrial development etc. St. Augustine proper has very small city limits (and thus low population counts), but if you were to expand it to the urban area immediately around the city, the population is more like 70k.

My quick impression is that the St. Augustine Aquarium proposal is more of a quick stop in the middle of a day of other tourist stops (Pirate Museum, Fort, St. George St, etc), while the Jax Aquarium is more of a half day/all day draw. I don't really see them as competing proposals. St. Augustine's is much more realistic and viable long term, while AquaJax's is speculative.

I still have serious doubts about pumping public dollars and corporate donations into an aquarium in Jax as a long term economic/tourism development strategy and I know I'm not the only one. I hope the local media, power brokers, and downtown advocates take a long hard look at this before anyone starts making large donations, or starts asking for public money/land.

[I-10east]

I used to work in St. Augustine, and a lot of people down there rarely, if ever go to Jacksonville and don't consider themselves to be from Jax.

Because they have their own rich culture, of course most wouldn't say that they're from Jax. That's no slight against Jax either.

[I-10east]

If all goes as planned here in Jax, I for one cannot wait for the 'unique' experience of viewing aquatic life on the other side of thick glass tube, so stoked!!!! Nevermind riding a rollercoaster or something. 

[thelakelander]

I still have serious doubts about pumping public dollars and corporate donations into an aquarium in Jax as a long term economic/tourism development strategy and I know I'm not the only one. I hope the local media, power brokers, and downtown advocates take a long hard look at this before anyone starts making large donations, or starts asking for public money/land.

As skeptical as I am that this ever gets off the ground, the proposed site is a mile away from the Northbank core. Impact would be limited without additional infill development in the area to fill in gaps so some sort of pedestrian level synergy could be created.



Some have mentioned Baltimore's aquarium as an example to follow. Take a look at the location.  It's not a mile away from Baltimore's version of the Landing. Everything at the Inner Harbor is literally immediately adjacent to complementing uses. That's why it works and places that resemble a kicked ant hill at street level don't.

[thelakelander]

Baltimore Inner Harbor Aerial


Jacksonville Downtown Riverfront Aerial

[CityLife]

I still have serious doubts about pumping public dollars and corporate donations into an aquarium in Jax as a long term economic/tourism development strategy and I know I'm not the only one. I hope the local media, power brokers, and downtown advocates take a long hard look at this before anyone starts making large donations, or starts asking for public money/land.

As skeptical as I am that this ever gets off the ground

That is why I would like for people to get ahead of the curve and either determine if it is viable or not. The AquaJax group took away $13k from One Spark. While not a large sum of money, it still could have gone to other creators that may be more viable. I'd hate for the AquaJax group to repeatedly win money at OneSpark, get a few corporate donations for design, lobbying, feasibility studies; only for everyone to later find out that it isn't a financially feasible project, isn't worth giving free city land to, won't attract enough tourists, won't create synergy downtown, etc.

The points about Baltimore are a great start.

[vicupstate]

the proposed site is a mile away from the Northbank core. Impact would be limited without additional infill development in the area to fill in gaps so some sort of pedestrian level synergy could be created.

Now Lake, you know that is the 'Jacksonville Way' to do anything.  Isolated, sprawled out from anything else, and GUARANTEED to be the silver bullet we have all been waiting for.

Spending this kind of money on a tourist trophy is not the way to vibrancy.  Spend a small fraction of that money on worthwhile projects like the Laura Trio, Landing re-do, Laura Street businesses, Hemming Plaza programming, etc., etc. will do infinitely more in the long run. 

[Charles Hunter]

While I agree that I'd rather the prize money gone to something else, maybe if they put the $13,000 toward an investment-grade feasibility study, it could save the city and potential donors/investors millions, if it comes back negative.

[thelakelander]

Some Aquarium competition....

LEGOLAND's owner is building three attractions (Madame Tussauds wax museum, Orlando Eye - 400' tall Ferris Wheel and Sea Life Aquarium) on I-Drive and a LEGOLAND hotel at the theme park. Merlin plans to connect them with a shuttle bus and marketing them together as a multiday attraction.

Merlin Unveils Plans for Triple Attraction in Orlando...

.....Jones said it is unusual for Merlin to create three new attractions together at the same time. He said Orlando will become a "cluster city," as Merlin calls locations with more than one of its facilities.

The three connected attractions are set inside a major development called I-Drive 360. The project will have 250,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, said Chuck Whittall, President of Unicorp National Developments, the project's developer. The first restaurant, Yard House, opens next week. Other planned tenants include Tin Roof Bistro, Cowgirls Country Western Bar and Sugar Factory.

The property, just south of the junction of Sand Lake Road and International Drive, is surrounded by such tourist sites as Ripley's Believe It Or Not! and Sleuth's Mystery Dinner Shows. The attraction cluster is less than five minutes from the Orange County Convention Center, one of the nation's busiest, and Jones said Merlin expects the towering Ferris wheel to lure convention-goers to visit the complex.

Jones said Merlin will take advantage of the new cluster of attractions to draw more tourists to Legoland Florida in Winter Haven. The new complex will sell tickets to Legoland, and a shuttle bus to Legoland that now leaves from Orlando Premium Outlets will depart from behind The Orlando Eye.

With four Merlin attractions in Central Florida, the company will promote its Merlin Annual Pass USA, which offers admission to all the company's attractions in the country.

Combined with the opening of an on-site hotel at Legoland next year, the net effect will be more tourists viewing the park as a multi-day attraction, Jones said.

The Orlando Eye will be the tallest observational wheel on the east coast of North America, according to a Merlin press release. The hub is scheduled to be attached to the base next month and the wheel should be assembled by November, Whittall said.

The Orlando Eye will include a "4D" theater showing films depicting Florida scenes, an entertainment suite and a retail area. The feet of two of the eight towers supporting the base of the Ferris wheel extend inside the building, inside which workers were welding structures during a media tour Wednesday.

Sea Life Aquarium Orlando will have 350,000 gallons of water in a 12-foot-deep ocean tank. It will also have a 360-degree underwater tunnel, along with an interactive touch pool exhibit and a video theater.

Madame Tussauds is a chain of wax museums founded in London in the 1830s. The Orlando attraction will display more than 60 likenesses of celebrities and historical figures.

full article: http://www.theledger.com/article/20140416/NEWS/140419418?p=2&tc=pg

[IrvAdams]

People can debate size and type and layout until such issues are agreed upon, but with a huge river and a nearby ocean, you have to admit an aquarium, especially one that specializes in local marine life, would be a natural fit for this city. It has actually been suggested for maybe 20-30 years that I know of.

[thelakelander]

Kind of sucks that they didn't find a site in or within walking distance of the historic district. Given the size, it would work better in a place where there is a decent amount of foot traffic.

St. Augustine Aquarium buys land, plans for early 2015 opening

After two-and-a-half years of discussions and searching, St Augustine Aquarium LLC has purchased a 5-acre site to build an aquarium in St. Johns County.

The property is located at 2045 State Road 16 in St. Augustine near the Interstate 95 and State Road 16 interchange and the St. Augustine Outlets. The sale closed Dec. 5.

Full article: http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2014/12/10/st-augustine-aquarium-buys-land-plans-for-early.html