The Living Planet Aquarium officially exercised its option to purchase its planned site near 500 West and 400 South Friday.

The move dealt a harsh blow to Salt Lake leaders, including Mayor Rocky Anderson and the City Council, who had hoped to kill the aquarium and snatch up the land to further develop the burgeoning Rio Grande area near The Gateway.

The aquarium now has 30 days to close on the deal and the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency expects the aquarium to pay the $3.8 million upfront for the land. RDA executive director Dave Oka said he didn't know if the land was worth more than the $3.8 million price, which was previously set in contract.

Aquarium president Brent Andersen informed the RDA by letter dated Friday that he was exercising his option to purchase the property.

"Please contact me to coordinate the closing and transfer of the property to the Living Planet Aquarium," Andersen wrote to RDA Board Chairman Eric Jergensen.

While the aquarium would own the land, it could not use it for anything other than an aquarium. There is some debate about whether there is a time limit specified into the option deal that forces the aquarium to build by a certain time.

Jergensen maintains the deal calls for the aquarium to be ready to build by June 2007 or the land will revert back to the RDA.

"It's a tremendous piece of property with tremendous potential for this community, and we hate to see it vacant," Jergensen said.

In the last year, the aquarium has picked up some important backers, including former congresswoman Enid Greene and former Utah Jazz basketball player Thurl Bailey. Also, the aquarium has opened a 15,000-square-foot preview exhibit at The Gateway. The exhibit, according to the aquarium, has exceeded attendance expectations.

Still, despite the momentum, the aquarium has failed to meet its last two fund-raising milestones in October of 2003 and April of 2004.

This month the aquarium was supposed to have raised $5.6 million of the $47 million projected price tag. If the aquarium didn't raise the $5.6 million the RDA Board, which is the City Council, could have severed its deal to give a free lease to the aquarium on the land the RDA owns near 400 South and 500 West.

Instead, aquarium promoters decided to purchase the land from the RDA, giving it more time to persuade Salt Lake County leaders to place the aquarium on a county-wide bond election. Aquarium proponents have lobbied the County Council to let voters decided if they will raise their own property taxes to fund a $30 million aquarium bond.

In another blow to the aquarium, the Salt Lake Chamber neglected to include the project in its recently released capitol projects list, which lays out the cultural projects the chamber's influential board thinks are most important for economic development in Salt Lake City.

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E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com