Detroit Zoo to build $10M Great Lakes Nature Center in Macomb County

The Detroit Zoo’s director stood beside Macomb County leaders Tuesday to announce that within a year the zoo would begin construction of “a world-class freshwater nature center” at a site yet to be chosen in the county.

The new Great Lakes Nature Center is to cost “at least $10 million” and to house “at least 20,000 square feet” of aquariums, animal habitats and displays on the science and ecology of the lakes, Detroit Zoo CEO Ron Kagan said.

With 31½ miles of coastline on Lake St. Clair and more than 40 on the Clinton River, Macomb County is ideal for siting “a world-class center” that will be devoted to the natural wonders of the Great Lakes” and the need to protect their environment, Kagan said.

No location has been selected, but “certainly it should be on the water,” Kagan said. He said fund-raising efforts were already under way and that most, if not all, of the cost of construction would come from donations.

Adults would probably pay “$6 or $7” to get in to the new center — “less for children” — Kagan said.

Standing beside him inside the Macomb County’s administration building in Mt. Clemens was a beaming Mark Hackel, Macomb County executive, who said that no site had been selected but that his preference would be putting the center at sprawling Lake St. Clair Metropark in Harrison Township.

“You see the lake as you drive up and you’re immediately engaged,” Hackel said. “Just smelling the air, seeing all that water that’s like an ocean out there, you’re already engaged."

Putting the center at the 770-acre Metropark would require a coordinated entry fee for admission both to the park and the zoo’s facility, he said.

County and zoo leaders have talked to Metropark officials about the possibility, “but we’re also talking to a lot of other landowners in the county,” he said.

The plan for the new nature center had the unanimous support of board members of the Detroit Zoological Society at a recent meeting, said Macomb County Public Works Commissioner. Candice Miller, a member of the zoo board.

A former U.S. congresswoman, Miller retired from Washington and moved back to Harrison Township in part to spend more time with her grandchildren, she said at the time. Today, she said that the zoo’s new nature center “will educate our children and our grandchildren.”

Miller said she would soon be “making a lot of phone calls” to seek donors for the project.

The center will bring not only the $10-million construction budget and about 20 full-time employees to its site, it would also draw visitors to spend money in the area, said John Paul Rea, Macomb County director of planning.

“It’s going to bring in trips of people needing restaurants, needing hotel rooms and driving more growth, here,” Rea said.

Construction is set to start this year, with a targeted open date at the end of 2019, according to an announcement on the zoo's website. The waterfront nature attraction is expected to welcome 150,000 to 200,000 visitors annually.

It is to be home to live native species of Great Lakes fish, amphibians, reptiles, turtles, small mammals, shorebirds, birds of prey and butterflies, among others — many of which will be rescued and non-releasable, the announcement said. The center will highlight the conservation, science, sustainability and welfare of these animals as well as the environmental and economic importance of Michigan’s inland seas.

"As stewards of the environment, we have a great responsibility to protect our region’s lakes and rivers and the wildlife that inhabit them," the zoo said in the announcement.

The zoo, headquartered in Royal Oak, is partially funded by a regional 0.1-mill property tax levied in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties. The millage provides one-third of zoo revenue, according to a Winter 2016 Community Impact Report.

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The millage brought in more than $11 million annually from taxpayers in the three counties, according to Free Press articles in 2016. Oakland County taxpayers contributed the most, with their contribution of zoo revenues expected to exceed $5 million last year.

According to statistics in the 2016 Community Impact Report from the zoo, the operating budget was $35 million in 2015 with 400 employees, and it contributes more than $100 million to the regional economy.

Macomb County was second in membership and attendance behind Oakland County at the regional attraction in Royal Oak, according to tri-county area statistics in the impact report.

The zoo saw its second-highest attendance in 2017, attracting more than 1.5 million visitors, according to a release on its website in January. Wild Lights, the zoo's holiday light display, boosted the total, drawing more than 151,000 guests, according to the release.

The zoo's all-time annual attendance record was set in 2016, when the Polk Penguin Conservation Center opened.

Three large renovation and expansion projects — the giraffe habitat, Devereux Tiger Forest and Holtzman Wildlife Foundation Red Panda forest — are to be completed this year. A new habitat for Japanese giant salamanders is to be unveiled at the National Amphibian Conservation Center, according to the zoo release.

The Belle Isle Nature Center on Belle Isle in Detroit also is operated by the zoo. That center had nearly 112,000 guests last year, up from more than 95,000 the in 2016, according to the release.

Contact Bill Laitner: blaitner@freepress.com