Here’s when NC Zoo will break ground on Asia expansion, plus new features for 2021
The N.C. Zoo has a full set of plans and a contractor lined up to begin work this fall on Asia, the first new continent to be developed at the park since North America opened in 1994.
All it needs now is for the N.C. General Assembly to pass a budget with the money needed to do the work.
“We’re ready,” Reid Wilson, secretary of the state Department of Cultural and Natural Resources said during a visit to the zoo in late April. “We’ve very hopeful.”
In 2016, voters in the state approved $25 million in ConnectNC bonds to go toward the development of Asia and Australia.
Asia will come first. If construction begins this fall, the attraction would likely open in 2023.
Its top features will be tigers, Komodo dragons and red pandas. Other animals will include Chinese alligators, cranes, vultures and otters.
Asia also will include a 300-seat restaurant and a large meeting space that could accommodate weddings, business gatherings and other special events, generating additional revenue for the zoo.
In his budget released in March, Gov. Roy Cooper recommended appropriating the $46 million needed to build Asia, which is expected to help the zoo attract more than a million visitors a year, some of whom might stay in an area motel overnight and come back to the park a second day.
Funding for the zoo
When conceived in the 1960s and ‘70s, the big-picture plan for the zoo included sections based on all seven continents and the four oceans. The grand opening of Africa, featuring elephants, gorillas, lions and zebras, was in 1980. North America opened in 1994 and includes polar bears, grizzlies and red wolves.
It quickly became clear that funding for additional continents would not be a priority for the state. Legislators often pointed to more pressing needs and some called for the zoo to strive to be financially self-sufficient.
The zoo’s operating budget is about $22 million a year, funded by state appropriations, money raised by the non-profit Zoo Society, ticket sales and concessions such as food, gifts and special seasonal add-ons. The zoo serves four missions: education, conservation, recreation and research.
For more than a decade, the zoo has needed additional money to try to attack a backlog of necessary repairs and renovations. Last year, the park finally was able to demolish the African Pavilion, which had developed leaks and cracks and had to be evacuated of animals for their safety and health.
Reopening after COVID
The zoo was closed for three months in 2020 after the coronavirus pandemic hit the state in March. It reopened in June at 20% capacity. It’s now operating at 40% capacity, with reservations required, until COVID restrictions are eased to allow more people to come. The zoo can handle about 4,000 people a day at maximum capacity.
Indoor exhibits, featuring mostly smaller animals, have all been reopened. Visitors are required to wear masks for those.
The park recently reopened Kaleidoscope, its butterfly garden, and new this summer are scooters outfitted like wild animals that visitors can rent to help them get around the 500 developed acres of the park.
Wilson said one reason he’s optimistic this may be the year lawmakers approve money to build Asia is the federal aid for pandemic recovery that will be coming to the state. That could help free up money for the zoo expansion and other projects, he said.
