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The Detroit Zoo wants to construct a large aquarium on the downtown Detroit riverfront — possibly on prime vacant land next to Hart Plaza, the Detroit Free Press reports. The aquarium would be in addition to the one at Belle Isle.
The zoo has floated the idea about a Detroit aquarium in the past, and the latest discussions have picked up in recent months, zoo Director and CEO Ron Kagan tells the Freep.
"We've been talking to a lot of people and trying to figure out, 'Is there a path?' " Kagan said in a phone interview, later adding, "I remain very hopeful that this will happen. (But) there are a million and one things that do need to work out for it to happen."
Sources tell the Free Press that one location under consideration is the site of the demolished Ford Auditorium, which is next to Hart Plaza and owned by the city.
Michele Hodges, president of the Belle Isle Conservancy, a nonprofit which operates the island's aquarium, tells the Freep she's welcome the project.
"We see the Belle Isle Aquarium as filling a very special niche that can’t be duplicated," she said, "so we would not see this as a competitor or a threat.”