CLEARWATER, Fla. — The Clearwater Marine Aquarium has a $32 million multi-year expansion plan that will add new habitats for animals, which it hopes to partially fund with a tourist development tax grant.
“Renovating this facility is going to be huge for us,” said Joe Handy, chief executive officer at Clearwater Marine Aquarium. “If we can entice people from across the world to come visit Clearwater, it has an echoing impact.”
Clearwater Marine Aquarium has requested $9.8 million in tourist development tax dollars from Pinellas County to help pay for the renovations. In order to qualify for the capital funding grant, the aquarium must prove the new renovations will draw more visitors who spend the night. Handy believes Clearwater Marine Aquarium could more than double its current attendance.
“That number could be in excess of a 100% increase of our current attendance,” he said. “So right now, our attendance hovers at about just under 400,000 visitors per year.”
Handy wants to renovate the original area of the aquarium which used to be a wastewater treatment facility until it was donated to CMA in 1978. A black curtain hangs around the empty giant rust stained pools, which used to house Winter the dolphin, the aquarium’s most famous marine resident who died in 2021.
“The way the pools were originally structured was to accommodate the treatment facility,” said Handy. ‘What we're looking to do over the next few years is really enhance this facility to be able to accommodate different species of animals.”
Handy wants to build new exhibits for sea lions from California, albino alligators, sharks, penguins and enhance the animal hospital. The CEO said the newly opened $7 million manatee habitat is part of the multi-year expansion plan.
“Just opened up last month,” he said. “We're excited to invite our guests to see the animals we have here.”
Handy wants the old part of the facility to match the much newer $80 million Visitor Center and the Ruth and J.O. Stone Dolphin Complex that was completed in 2020. It was the “Dolphin Tale” movies that made Winter famous and drawing visitors for many years that helped to pay for the expansion.
“We saw the success of Winter being here, it pulled people from across the world that want to come here and it put Clearwater on the map. I mean, our beaches take care of itself,” he said. “But this little aquarium that has emerged and has grown over the last few years was a part of that story.”
To pay for the new expansion, Clearwater Marine Aquarium hopes to raise funds over the next six years through the “Rising Tides: Safeguarding Marine Life for the Future” campaign. Handy calls Clearwater Marine Aquarium the heartbeat of a top tourist destination and said he wants to create the best environment possible.
“This is a jewel of the city of Clearwater,” he said. “We want to make sure that we are enticing folks to come visit and see … the newness and actually enhancing our ability to care for the animals we have.”
It’s the first time in six years, the Tourist Development Council has offered one-to-one matching grants for approved capital funding request projects and it received eight applications. The council is expected to make its recommendations to Pinellas County commissioners this fall, who must approve any project which costs $10 million or more.