http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/ny...l?ref=nyregion
Aquarium to Renovate With Giant Shark Tanks
By CHARLES V. BAGLI
September 16, 2009
The New York Aquarium is moving ahead with a $100 million plan to renovate its building in Coney Island and create two massive tanks for more than 30 sharks — about four times as many as now ply the aquarium’s waters.
The aquarium’s ambitious plan comes even as the Bloomberg administration remains locked in tense negotiations with a major landowner over the city’s long-awaited proposal to revitalize the Coney Island amusement district to the west and its surrounding neighborhood.
Under the aquarium’s plan, the sharks, whose streamlined forms simultaneously scare and fascinate visitors, will have a lot more room to move. The aquarium’s single 90,000-gallon tank — where eight tiger, nurse and reef sharks now make their home — is to be replaced by two glass-walled tanks with a total capacity of 600,000 gallons. There will also be a variety of other new exhibits and a new building that connects to both the Boardwalk and Surf Avenue.
“I’d like to bring in one million visitors a year,” said Steve Sanderson, chief executive of the Wildlife Conservation Society, the nonprofit group that runs the aquarium and the Bronx, Central Park, Queens and Prospect Park Zoos. “We’ll create exhibits that will allow us to be a year-round facility. Our donors and the city believe we’re the anchor for redevelopment on the east side.”
The aquarium renovation, or Sea Change, as the society is calling it, is a partnership between the city; the Brooklyn borough president, Marty Markowitz; and the Wildlife Society. The Bloomberg administration has set aside $41 million for the project in its four-year capital budget. And the society, which plans to unveil the project at its annual fund-raising dinner Thursday night, hopes to raise an additional $15 million by 2013, when the new shark exhibit is expected to open.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that the timing “couldn’t be better” for the project, because the City Council had approved the city’s plan to redevelop the seafront district, once known as the world’s largest playground. The plan calls for a 9.4-acre amusement district, with hotels on Surf Avenue and as many as 4,500 apartments to the north and west.
“Through our partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society, and our renewed capital commitments, we’ll reinvigorate the aquarium and transform it into one of the great seaside attractions in the country,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a statement.
Still, the city remains at odds with Joseph J. Sitt, a developer who owns 10 acres and once had his own redevelopment plan for the area. The Bloomberg administration hopes to buy some or all of his land. In the meantime, Mr. Sitt has closed one popular amusement park, and it is unclear for now who will redevelop the area.
The wildlife society has long wanted to revamp the 52-year-old aquarium in Coney Island, which attracts about 750,000 visitors a year. But the city rejected one plan last year because it provided for new exhibits but failed to transform the building’s exterior and create a more engaging link to the Boardwalk and Surf Avenue.
Mr. Sanderson said there would be three new exhibitions in the main hall by the end of next season, including freshwater fish of Africa, fish of the Amazon and a coral exhibition.
There are plans for a refurbished Aquatheater, a new conservation hall and an expanded marine conservation program.
“This should increase attendance and make it a state-of-the-art facility,” said Domenic M. Recchia Jr., the city councilman who represents the area. “It’s long overdue.”