Toronto is about to get its first brand-new tourist bait in decades: The entertainment behemoth behind Ripley's Believe It Or Not is planning to build a 150,000-square-foot aquarium at the foot of the CN Tower.
The attraction, tentatively slated to open in three years, is expected to be a boon for the nearby entertainment and waterfront districts, and for the burgeoning convention business in Toronto.
"There's a reason they're choosing Toronto - it speaks well of the destination," said David Whitaker, the president and chief executive officer of Tourism Toronto. "We're really starting to find our swagger."
But landing the contract to build and operate an aquarium in the shadow of one of Canada's most popular tourist draws is also a coup for Vancouver business titan Jim Pattison: Ripley Entertainment Inc., is a division of his Jim Pattison Group, the third-largest private company in the country.
"The location is magnificent for us," said Tim O'Brien, vice-president of communications for Ripley, which already owns two major aquariums in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Gatlinburg, Tenn.
The idea of a Toronto aquarium has been floated and sunk in the past. This proposal, however, looks likely to succeed.
The Canada Lands Company, the Crown corporation which owns the CN Tower and the five-acre plot on which the aquarium would be located, has already signed a long-term land lease deal with Ripley.
Ripley won a competitive bidding process quietly launched about two years ago, said Gordon McIvor, the vice-president of CLC.
Mr. O'Brien said it's too early to say what the aquarium will cost, how many visitors it is expected to attract or which species of sea life it will feature. That's because the company and CLC are waiting to see how much of their proposal survives the city rezoning process that will get under way officially at a community council meeting next Tuesday, he said.
The city's planning department is already warm to the concept. "This is the right type of use for this location," said Sarah Phipps, a city planner.
The Ripley and CLC proposal includes more than just a massive aquarium: It also features a retail and restaurant development, which, like the aquarium, is designed by Toronto firm B + H Architects.
The plan envisions an aquarium on the land between the CN Tower and the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, with a 47,000-square-foot retail and restaurant complex on the tower's other side.
The aquarium would open in two phases: a first phase of approximately 96,000 square feet to open in three years, and a second phase of about 54,000 square feet to open later.
Councillor Adam Vaughan, who represents the area, said so far he has heard little opposition to the proposal. "It's the right fit for the neighbourhood," he said, adding the only critical issue will be figuring out how to handle the extra buses full of tourists and schoolchildren likely to idle in the area once the aquarium opens.
"The trick with aquariums is always the proponents and their funding," he said. "I'll be interested to see if the financing holds."
Mr. McIvor said the CLC would pay for some minor enhancements to the site; Ripley is likely to foot the remainder of the bill to build the marine attraction, but both Mr. McIvor and Mr. O'Brien of Ripley said it was too early to talk in detail about money.
Although Toronto has seen a renaissance of its major cultural attractions in the last decade - namely the dramatic renovations of the Royal Ontario Museum and the Art Gallery of Ontario - a brand new tourism draw hasn't opened in decades. Even the Hockey Hall of Fame, which opened in its current location on Yonge Street in 1993, moved from a former location at the CNE.
