Believe it or not, Ripley plans aquarium for CN Tower base

Ripley Entertainment, which owns aquariums in both South Carolina and Tennessee, along with Canada Lands Company have submitted a proposal to the City of Toronto to construct a massive facility at the base of the CN Tower.

Tourism construction

“It’s a three-year project,” said Gordon McIvor, vice-president of strategic acquisitions at Canada Lands, the Crown corporation which owns the tower and the land on which the aquarium would be built.

Details have not been released, but McIvor said plans call for a 150,000-square-foot aquarium and 50,000-square-foot retail and entertainment complex. Conceptual design has been completed by Toronto’s B+H Architects.

Canada Lands has inked a tentative, long-term land-lease agreement with Ripley, McIvor said.

That will become a legal document once due diligence has been completed by both parties.

“We’re expecting that to happen within the next couple of months,” he said.

McIvor said the aquarium would be the largest in Canada and one of the major such facilities in North America.

“This is looking very, very promising,” he said.

While there has been talk in the past of locating an aquarium in the city, McIvor said those schemes “never really seemed to go anywhere.

“I think the reason this is being treated a lot more seriously by city councilors and politicians is that it is quite obvious that both sides have put a lot of time and effort into this and that this is a serious proposal.”

McIvor said the aquarium, if approved, would be the first major new tourism attraction built in Toronto in close to two decades.

It would be located at the base of the most successful tourism facility in the country, he said.

Cost estimates have not been released.

The Ripley/Canada Lands’ application was scheduled to be discussed at a committee meeting at city hall.