Aquarium hopes to build in Sandy

SANDY — After ditching plans for a Salt Lake City spot, the Living Planet Aquarium is not looking far for a permanent home — it wants to stay in Sandy.

Although plans are still preliminary, aquarium officials and Sandy leaders are talking about finding a location in the south valley city, one to replace the temporary exhibit at 725 E. 10600 South. While plans have been scaled down, the new $15 million price tag is more appetizing for public officials to handle and possible pledge public dollars.

"I think it's more feasible than it was the first time I heard the numbers," Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan said. "I think the aquarium is something that is an asset to any community. It's a matter of funding in the future, how large and how much."

Now Sandy is entertaining the idea of giving public dollars to the project.

"I think if they get a piece of land and work on raising private funds, it could go along with public funds," said Bryant Anderson, City Council chairman.

"You're talking to the guy that received a phone call one day and was asked to go on a tour (of the aquarium) and didn't want to go.

But I was pretty impressed," said Anderson, who takes his grandkids there. "I'm a big supporter of it."

Whether those funds would be from state or city dollars or even both, it's still too early to pinpoint. Aquarium leaders have already met with Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert to discuss legislative funding.

What's making the aquarium more palatable is a new "phased" construction plan. Phase 1 will be a $9 million 50,000-square-foot space. Phase 2 will cost $6 million and be 30,000 square feet. It will span more than three acres.

"It's not the shark tunnel, but it will be many times better than what we have now," said Brent Andersen, aquarium chairman and founder. "The shark tank that we have right now is at 15,000 gallons. If we did a phased approach, while we wouldn't have a 300,000-400,000-gallon shark tank, we would still have something along the lines of a 115,000-gallon shark tank, which is 10 times as big as the one we have now."

The aquarium was originally pursuing a $34.5 million bond from Salt Lake County for a world-class, 90,000-square-foot exhibit spanning five acres. The plan was to build at 336 S. 400 West in Salt Lake City, on land owned by the city's redevelopment agency that has been preserved for the aquarium expansion for years.