Crown Center to get aquarium

[trailerkid]

That and people like to complain about the price of things in general (say....overpriced wine for example) - its not exclusive to parents.

There is a huge difference between paying a lot for an activity your kids love and will remember for the rest of his/her life and paying too much on a glass of wine as a Dallas-based wine bar.

[KCMax]

There is a huge difference between paying a lot for an activity your kids love and will remember for the rest of his/her life and paying too much on a glass of wine as a Dallas-based wine bar.

Sure. Point is, people like to complain about the price of things, even though they go ahead and buy them anyway. Hell, I do it too.

[loftguy]

The Mayor of Mission, Christy Humerickhouse, has issued her monthly newsletter discussing the aquarium.  Could not capture the link, so here's some of what it contains.





"Dear Friends,

Many of you may have heard the announcement in the news this week about the Aquarium project planned for Crown Center.  The media covered the story on Wednesday, detailing plans for a $15 million project set to open in 2012.  The immediate question for those of us in Mission is, "what impact does this have on The Gateway project?"

The Gateway project, a mixed use development, includes a 2.5 million gallon saltwater aquarium.  The aquarium serves as one of the anchors to the development and will be operated by the U.S. Aquarium Team of Dallas, TX.    The project's estimated total value when completed is $150-180 million dollars.  The project received authorization for $63.2 million in STAR bond financing through the State of Kansas. 

During our January 21st redevelopment update breakfast, Tom Valenti of the Cameron Group, developers of The Gateway, shared progress on the project which has stalled for the last two years as a result of the economy.  Valenti shared that he is optimistic that.... All anchor tenants, including U.S. Aquarium Team of Dallas remain on board.

In talking with Valenti about yesterday's announcement, he assured me that "The Kansas Aquarium at The Gateway will be under construction this summer. We are not deterred by today's announcement of a competing aquarium in Missouri. The Kansas Aquarium will be operated by a successful entrepreneur, Erik Pedersen, who will oversee the finest aquarium in the country at The Gateway"

[FangKC]

The problem with the Mission Aquarium is that it is isolated from other attractions, and from the large hotels and conventions that might funnel some business to it.

Crown Center has other attractions for kids and adults. You can combine activities like visiting the children's theater and the aquarium. Tourists can visit the aquarium, Union Station, and the WWI Museum in one day. Visitors can walk there from CC hotels, or take a bus or cab from downtown hotels.

The CC Aquarium is also accessible to Children's Mercy Hospital. If you have one child in the hospital there, and other children in the family who visit, you can take them over to the aquarium as a distraction.

The other thing is a lot of school field trips come to Union Station, CC, and the WWI Museum and the CC Aquarium could easily be on the schedule as well without having to load the kids up on the bus again and drive somewhere.

The other thing is that Hallmark owns CC and can easily subsidize the Aquarium in reduced rent if need be. Older parts of Crown Center are probably paid off at this point, and the Mission project will still have to pay off a mortgage, so there will be less flexibility in rental terms.

[AllThingsKC]

We are not deterred by today's announcement of a competing aquarium in Missouri. The Kansas Aquarium will be operated by a successful entrepreneur, Erik Pedersen, who will oversee the finest aquarium in the country at The Gateway"

I know a mayor who is jealous!

[amaugh]

Should change title to aquarium..

How big is 50Ksqft?  Wonder where they would put it.  KC could use an aquarium.  Hope it's on the scale of being a destination and not a side thingy that happens to be there.  $15M might not build a destination aquarium though and maintenance is not cheap.

For a good comparison: a football field is about 48,000 square feet (NOT including endzones).

[Downtowner]

What tourist is going to find the Mission Aquarium? There won't be any other attractions for kids around that place. I won't be surprised if the Mission investor in this drops out....sounds like Crown Center trumped this plan and is going to open first.

[bobbyhawks]

What tourist is going to find the Mission Aquarium? There won't be any other attractions for kids around that place.

They can always just take the bi-state created transit route that frequently runs out to this neighborhood... wait...

Now I actually do want to see it built.  Now that Kansas is serious about building attractions, they will perhaps be serious about getting people to them in a mode other than car.  After all, attractions like an aquarium can only make it so long in initial hype and first visits before tourists become a significant and desirable segment of their patronage.

[IraGlacialis]

Gasp, place activities together in a concentrated area?  That's just not the KC way.  Sadly, a majority in the town think sprawled activities is still the way to go.  

sprawled activities = isolated experiences
concentrated activities = integrated experiences

I'd argue that there should be a middle ground between the two.
Concentrating activities gives a more integrated experience, but spreading things out (within a reasonable distance, mind you) also allows people to travel through the city.
The compromise is creating clumps of activities layed-out across the city by neighborhoods. Like how we have a clump of museums in the Crown Center/US/Liberty Memorial area, several museums and a library in the Plaza/UMKC area, etc. Then you link those areas

[trailerkid]

What tourist is going to find the Mission Aquarium? There won't be any other attractions for kids around that place. I won't be surprised if the Mission investor in this drops out....sounds like Crown Center trumped this plan and is going to open first.

I have to echo this x 1000. Some motorists have a hard time finding the Plaza as it is. So now you're asking them to find the Plaza...take Ward Parkway southwest from the Plaza...merge right on Shawnee Mission Parkway and take SMP until you reach a neighborhood of 1950s/60s single family homes with an aquarium in the middle of it. Once they get there they're surrounded by Johnson Drive and a tacky shopping center that's 1/5 the size of Zona Rosa. What is the target demographic for this? And what tourist is going to come away impressed by this? People from Gardner?

[AJoD]

The Mayor of Mission, Christy Humerickhouse, has issued her monthly newsletter discussing the aquarium.  Could not capture the link, so here's some of what it contains.

Not to be pedantic, but Laura McConwell is the Mission Mayor.  Christy Humerickhouse is director of parks and rec, and I believe she sends out the email.

[mudjack]

Some motorists have a hard time finding the Plaza as it is. So now you're asking them to find the Plaza...take Ward Parkway southwest from the Plaza...merge right on Shawnee Mission Parkway and take SMP until you reach a neighborhood of 1950s/60s single family homes with an aquarium in the middle of it.

Really? My cheapskate pre-paid phone has Google maps on it. How hard is it to get maps and directions these days.

[KC-wildcat]

The most recent Star article says 45K sq ft for the aquarium compared to 26K for the one in Phoenix area.

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/02/10/26 ... catch.html

Jeezus, why don't they just say how many gallons, as opposed to sq ft?  The Star and the Crown Center people already said that the aquarium would ocupy the entire 50K sq ft first level and half of the second level.  So, how can it only be 45K sq ft? 

What is the best criteria for measuring aquariums?  gallons or sq ft?

[missingkc]

Maybe some of the discrepancies are due to lack of clarity about exhibit space vs total space that would include access areas, restrooms, offices, gift shop.  It's also possible that space would be devoted to holding tanks for new and ill fish as well as for pumps, filters and such.

Same as the difference between leasable and total space in retail.

[IraGlacialis]

What is the best criteria for measuring aquariums?  gallons or sq ft?

It depends on whether you are talking about the aquarium as a whole (area) or a single tank (volume).

[KC-wildcat]

It depends on whether you are talking about the aquarium as a whole (area) or a single tank (volume).

Clearly one would not measure the square footage of an aquarium in gallons. 

I'm simply wondering how most aquariums measure their exhibit.  volume of water or square footage of building. 

Ultimately, this whole argument about sg ft may be much ado about nothing.  If the volume of water is 2 million gallons, I don't care if the exhibit is 50K, 100K or 200K sq ft.  What I care about is the amount of water and number of species on display.  My gut tells me that this is how most aquariums are classified. 

[KCMax]

More on the direction Halls will go with the new aquarium taking up their space. Also they'll be taking out the third floor escalators and moving many of the third floor tenants including the Hallmark card shop.

Halls sees big change as chance to shine

The article says the aquarium will take up the 45,000 sq foot first floor AND half the second floor. I'm not sure how much that is total, and how much of that will be the actual aquarium.

[ignatius]

According to the lease transaction, the total space is 100K sq ft. Is odd how wide ranging the reports are.  Even if the opening uses less exhibit space, there would be future space for Aquarium 2.0 in future years.

http://www.costar.com/News/Article/Merl ... -SF/126666

[trailerkid]

i don't really understand the point of keeping the second floor of Halls at all. Is it connected to the Link or something?

I was very surprised that Hall's was originally conceived as a national department store and that's why it's so large.

[cityscape]

Isn't part of the aquarium going to be outside as well?  That could be how they reach the 100,000 square feet we keep reading about.