The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach California took an important step towards creatingits newest attraction, Pacific Visions, on Tuesday night.The city council approvedthe remaining $10.7 million of a challenge grant to be paid to the aquarium over the next 10 years.
Originally approved in 2013, the grant was intendedto be paid out in annual installments of $1.5 million out of the city’s Tidelands Fund.This was effected by the drop in the oilprice. Since the grant was madethe cost of barrel of crude oil has fallen from$90 per barrelto $50.The city had paid out $4.3 million of the $15 million grant to date. Tuesday's decsionwill pay out the remainder over a restructured time table ending in 2025.
The funding is for the Aquarium of the Pacific's plannedPacific Visions project.This will bea 29, 000-square-foot addition to the existing aquarium buildings at Long Beach.
Pacific Visions
The new structurewill include a two-story immersive theatre witha 130by32-foot-tall screen. The theatre willboast a retractable floor. The estimated cost was in the region of $53 million. $40 million of thiswas in place byMarch.The aquarium attracted over1.7 million visitors this year. It is hoped thatthe expansion will help it drive this number still higher totwo million.
“It will be the most powerful platform in the world outside of the military that allows the public to explore alternative pathways to the future and determine how our actions collectively will determine the future that we actually have, ” said Dr. Jerry R. Schubel, president and CEO of the aquarium.
The aquarium brings in approximately$60 million a yearto the Long Beach area.
Pacific Visionsis expectedto open in 2018.
Image:A rendering of the proposed Pacific Visions project. Courtesy of EHDD
David Rosenberg, Vice President of Guest Experience
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