Loop 030 printable

Volume 2, No. 8. April 26, 2002

Ocean’s 11
Another attraction surviving on its short-term take is Ocean Journey aquarium in Denver, Colorado, which, after announcing it would close to the public April 2 (THE LOOP, March 22, 2002), earned enough money to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy less than 24 hours before shuttering.

“We had to have money for Chapter 11,” said Kimberly Thomas, public relations manager for the three-year-old aquarium. “We have enough money to run for a portion of the reorganization, about four months.” That money came largely from donor Barbara Bridges, who pledged $1 million if the aquarium raised $2 million more in donations. With that pledge, the family of volunteer diver Bruce Kelley came forward with a $500,000 gift, and the Hensel Phelps construction company, one of the aquarium’s builders, anted up $250,000. “It all came together at the very last minute,” Thomas said, and based on other pledges made during the two weeks of the announced closure, Ocean Journey officials are certain they will meet Bridges’ $2 million goal.

Those two weeks also saw a spike in attendance as the public rushed to get in a last visit to the aquarium. Since the Chapter 11 filing, attendance has settled back into its normal range for April, Thomas said, but the aquarium did sign up 300 new or renewed memberships during the month. While backing away significantly from the original feasibility study’s projection of 1 million visitors a year, Ocean Journey is looking to a recently opened simulator and playground, rotation of exhibits, and an upcoming rays touch pool exhibit to fuel return visits. Its interim survival plan projects 208,762 visitors through July 02. “If we can sustain 600,000 people a year and get this debt fixed, we can go forward,” Thomas said, referring to a $63 million debt, $57 million of that in bonds.

What the not-for-profit aquarium is hoping for is public funding, specifically from the regional Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, which helps fund the Denver Zoo. The District already turned Ocean Journey down last summer saying it was not financially feasible.“They couldn’t see throwing good money after bad, as it were,” said Thomas, but she said the aquarium’s management thinks the reorganization forced by the Chapter 11 process would answer the District’s concerns.

Meantime, Ocean Journey’s staff presses on. “All the animals are still here, business is normal as far as that goes,” Thomas said. “From the public standpoint, things are the same. Where it really changes is on the back end. We are an open book in anything we do; any money at all we pay out is public record and will continue to be. It is just a lot more paperwork.”