Aqua Jax pushes for aquarium in downtown Jacksonville

A local group pushing to bring an aquarium to downtown Jacksonville is now looking for investors.

Bringing the massive aquarium -- in the form of a stingray -- to the banks of the St. Johns River is Scott Grant’s biggest mission.

“The message here today is that we can do it,” said Grant.

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That’s what he told a lunch crowd Thursday at the River City Brewing Company that showed up to hear his presentation with Aqua Jax.

“We expect that we can get a million visitors a year and have a billion dollars of economic impact over the first 10 years of operation,” said Grant.

But to get there, the group is looking to garner more support.

It’s why Aqua Jax is taking its presentation to groups like the Exchange Club.

Club member Darryl Patterson said he wants to hear more.

“Their plan, how maybe they can go about getting it here,” said Patterson.

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Over the next nine months, Aqua Jax said it will hold 100 presentations at local social and civic clubs.

There are four locations along the river Aqua Jax is eyeing, all of them are owned by the city.

“They have to agree that they’re going to let us have some of that land,” said Grant.

Once they’re able to get city approval and public support, comes the hard part, figuring out how to pay for a project that could cost up to $125 million.

“Preferably a single large donor, which is the method they used in Atlanta,” said Grant.

Cox Media Group