Aquarium & Children's Museum for Downtown...

[Tacachale]

^It seems unlikely that the "St. Augustine Aquarium" would have proposed building elsewhere.

[taylormiller]

The aquarium is a privately funded attraction that is made possible by the City of SA working with the developer.  It is intended to be built out over phases and be financially self sufficient.

The developer originally looked in Jacksonville but he was met with crickets.

I don't care if this proposal was OFFERED to us, the City of Jacksonville can't be waiting around for offers to make our city better, we need to be the ones rolling out the red carpet and presenting our city as a candidate for such things. We can't wait for great opportunities to be presented to us and think that one day, hopefully, we'll have those great ideas fall into our laps, we have to get out there and make our own opportunities. Even if the Hiester family and the developer said no, we have an obligation to ourselves as a city to try and make these things happen here.

The developer is banking on foot traffic being in the 100,000 person range. We get millions of people downtown and maybe the joint venture of AquaJax and the Chamber of Commerce could have made a more attractive offer than what they've got. I want to know why the developer was "met with crickets" here. I want to know why the city didn't even attempt to take a swing at it.

[Coolyfett]

Interesting

[02roadking]

http://www.news4jax.com/news/merlin-entertainments-has-its-eye-on-florida/31255440

[I-10east]

​St. Augustine Aquarium hits the brakes due to 'permitting issues'

http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2015/11/17/st-augustine-aquarium-hits-the-breaks-due-to.html