An aquarium coming downtown to Crown Center

What terrific news!

Crown Center is going to get an aquarium:

Halls Crown Center will get $15M aquarium by Merlin Entertainments Group


Kansas City Business Journal - by Krista Klaus , Staff Writer

Date: Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Merlin Entertainments Group has announced plans to open a $15 million freshwater and saltwater aquarium at Crown Center in 2012.

The company, based in the United Kingdom, will build a 100,000-square-foot aquarium at the Kansas City retail center. The Sea Life Kansas City at Crown Center aquarium will take up the first floor of the existing Halls retail store and half of the store’s second floor to accommodate the attraction’s two-story height.

Halls will reduce its footprint at Crown Center by roughly half to make way for the aquarium, which will feature marine life indigenous to the Midwest as well as the ocean.

Crown Center and Merlin plan to break ground on the project May 1. The aquarium will add as many as 50 jobs to the area when completed.

Merlin and Crown Center Redevelopment Corp. will share the cost of the project; no public money will be sought.

This is such a smart move in so many ways for Crown Center, it's hard to cover them all.

Additionally, it's a terrific move for Kansas City, in general, but for downtown, more specifically, too.  Between this addition and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, these will be huge boosts for the city and region.   It adds jobs, it adds to the attractions to the area, it gives another reason to go--or even stay--downtown.  It strengthens the city in a lots of different ways.

And the added bonus is that the Halls and Halls Crown Center didn't go "hat in hand" to the city to beg for money to make it happen.  More great evidence of what a class act the entire organization is.

Link:  http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2011/02/09/halls-crown-center-will-get-15m.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bizj_kansascity+%28Kansas+City+Business+Journal%29