ATTRACTION—Backed by City, Aquarium in Long Beach Seeks Expansion

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Buoyed by a city-backed refinancing plan that will help keep it above water, Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific is seeking federal funds to study the possibility of an expansion.

Tammie Brailsford, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the tourist attraction, said aquarium officials are applying to the U.S. Department of Commerce for approximately $250,000 in grant money to pay for “conceptual” expansion plans. The plans would be used in an effort to locate private or government financing sources.

“We don’t want to add to our debt,” Brailsford said. “We want to find alternative means of financing.”

On May 3, the Long Beach city government assumed responsibility for issuing $129.5 million in new aquarium bonds.

Proceeds from the bond sale are to be used to finance the aquarium expansion. The new issue is expected to lower total debt service costs by an estimated $9.2 million over the life of the bonds, even though it extends the final maturity by seven years.

“We have met all our financial obligations so far, but we knew we had to change things in the future,” Brailsford said. “We now have a better (bond) rating, lower interest rates and therefore better payments. It’s not much different than someone refinancing their house.”

The plan gives the aquarium breathing room to pursue the expansion, which Brailsford said has been under consideration since the site opened in June 1998.

The aquarium debuted to strong attendance numbers. It attracted 1.8 million visitors its first year, not far from the 2 million annual visitors projected in the original funding estimates.

In its second year, however, attendance fell to 1.1 million. Attendance for fiscal 2001, which ends June 30, is expected to show a slight rise to about 1.2 million. The aquarium generated $18 million in revenues for fiscal 2000, against expenses of $15 million.

Although expanding at a time when attendance is down wouldn’t seem to be the best business move, Brailsford said it would likely help stabilize improving attendance figures.

“We’ve determined that our actual ideal capacity is about 1.4 million people a year,” Brailsford said. “We think we are on track to reach that. Our attendance pattern has been the same as successful aquariums in other parts of the country. There is a slide in the second year, and then a recovery. That is what is happening here. We think an expansion would help us maintain that recovery and sustain attendance levels.”

The expansion would likely involve about 25,000 to 30,000 square feet of additional exhibition and educational space, Brailsford said. Currently, about half of the 156,000-square-foot aquarium is devoted to exhibits, with the rest devoted to offices, storage and a restaurant.

Aquarium administrators plan to consult experts in the attractions business about what to include in an expansion.

Kirk Rose, an architect who led the team at Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum that designed the existing Long Beach aquarium, said major additions to large aquariums that have had attendance slumps are not uncommon.

If financing is arranged, the earliest the addition would become a reality is 2005, and perhaps as late as 2007-08, Brailsford said.

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