PHOENIX — Officials hope to raise $70 million to tear down the Phoenix Zoo and build a new one in its place.
Not only do officials want to design better, more interactive exhibits, they also want to condense them so they're more accessible, which in turn keeps visitors engaged and coming back.
About 1.3 million visitors pass through the zoo's gates every year.
Visitors need to walk 2.5 miles to see the major exhibits. The new zoo will cut that walk to about a mile.
Zoo officials will need to raise $70 million to replace aging infrastructure and create oasislike exhibits.
Director Jeff Williamson intends to raise $20 million in the next five years and $50 million in the next 10 years.
"We are creating an engaging, unified experience out of what is now something of a hodge-podge of exhibits that grew up over more than 40 years of additions and changes," Williamson said.
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The privately owned zoo will kick off a major fund-raising campaign this winter.
Zoo Development Director Lorraine Frias said about $6 million has come in from individuals, foundations and corporations; it includes about $2 million from the recent Phoenix bond election, the first time the zoo has been publicly subsidized.
In the meantime, officials also will recruit volunteers to help build relationships with potential donors, Frias said.
She said large Arizona firms such as Salt River Project and Arizona Public Service Co. as well as small businesses are likely focuses for fund-raising efforts. So are the estimated 38,000 zoo members.
The new zoo will be more compact — the African and tropical animals will be put into an area of about five acres encircled by a one-mile loop, as opposed to the current nine-acre area encircled by a 2.5-mile loop — and it will bring visitors closer to the creatures.
Most of the animals now are in distinct and often widely separated exhibits.
In the new zoo, one exhibit will blend almost seamlessly into the next.
