VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — City management will begin negotiating with the companies that own Dollywood and Ripley’s Believe It or Not attractions after both expressed interest in either purchasing or operating the Virginia Aquarium.
In a briefing in front of Virginia Beach City Council Tuesday, Monica Croskey, an assistant city manager, revealed leadership from both Herschend Family Entertainment, which owns Dollywood, and Ripley’s Entertainment, have come to tour Virginia Beach’s aquarium after responding to a request for information from the city last year.
Both have experience in operating aquariums. Both currently have three across different parts of the country. Ripley’s has one in Virginia Beach’s rival resort city, Myrtle Beach, in South Carolina.
Since the aquarium first opened off General Booth Boulevard in 1986, the city has been responsible for all the buildings and employees of the aquarium while the foundation, a non-profit 501(c)3, owns the animals and the exhibits.
Both the city and foundation consider their long partnership successful, with the aquarium touted as the third most-visited attraction in Virginia, with nearly 593,000 visitors from July 2022 through June 2023.
However what remains to be seen is how Herschend Family Entertainment and Ripley’s would operate it.
“Before we do anything else, we need a site visit — an onsite visit — to see if it will really be good for us,” said Councilwoman Rosemary Wilson. “Is the stranding what they say it is? Is the educational pieces what they say they are?”
The 40-year-old aquarium off of General Booth Boulevard near the Oceanfront is touted as the third most-visited attraction in the Commonwealth, but it needs millions of dollars in repairs — money that is not included in City Manager Patrick Duhaney’s proposed budget.
“The goal of the aquarium is going to be not only be survival, but success,” said Mayor Bobby Dyer.
City Council is wondering if they can find the needed money from a private operator.
While the city owns the aquarium and pays the employees, the Virginia Aquarium Foundation owns the animals and exhibits. So far, they haven’t come out with exactly what they want to see.
Duhaney said, however, that there is no more time to waste, though no timeline has been set to make a decision.
“I don’t think it’s in anybody’s best interest to punt this any longer than we already are,” Duhaney said. “We’re already atrophying staff. It’s going to be hard for us to recruit and retain aquarium professionals. We’re in this state of purgatory and limbo.”