Aquarium Seeks Deal
That Increases Rent

By Kurt Helin
Editor

Aquarium of the Pacific officials have big plans for the coming decade — a new watershed exhibit, new classrooms, more room for veterinary services and plans to double the size of the temporary exhibit gallery and make it a multi-media experience.

They have pledged to make the plans come true without taking on more debt — all the money will come through corporate and private donations.

But to get those donations, they needed to strike a deal with the city, which owns the aquarium.

That new deal was approved unanimously by the City Council Tuesday.

It calls for the aquarium — which has been paying a certain amount of revenue, to the tune of about $2.1 million, to the city since 2001 for what aquarium officials call “rent” — to start paying $3.52 million. In addition, if there are any profits of more than $500,000 in a year, the city would get 50%. The deal extends the lease for the aquarium, and locks in that rent price, for the next 55 years.

Council members welcomed that deal.

“I look at this not only as an investment in a city building but in a city educational asset,” said Second District Councilman Dan Baker.

In exchange for the increased rent, the aquarium gets something it needs, said Jerry Schubel, aquarium CEO.

“We get stability and clarity,” Schubel said before the council meeting. “Right now, the rent is not really codified in any kind of document.”

That lack of a codified rent made it hard for the aquarium to do any fundraising from institutions or individuals for their future expansion, Schubel said. Donors were concerned that their money would end up going to bond payments because of city decisions rather than developing new attractions.

The city has owned the aquarium since 2001, when it took over the restructured bond debt from the nonprofit foundation. Since that time, the aquarium has made “rent” payments instead of bond payments. The money goes into the city’s Tideland’s Fund to help pay for waterfront expenses, but it has not helped much with the principal on the debt.

With the increased rent, the aquarium will be paying half of its principle. But to look at the aquarium and this new rent deal as just cold, hard numbers is a mistake, Schubel said.

“We have to get to the point that you look at (the aquarium) not as a business asset,” he said. “There is no metric to measure the number of kids getting an education here, no way to measure what this means to the city as a cultural resource.”

Several City Council members agreed with that point.

“The partnerships (the aquarium) has developed with the community and with individual schools has been a great benefit to the city,” said First District Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal.

About 1.3 million visitors will go through the aquarium this year, Schubel said. Of those attendees, 27% are from Long Beach and 87% are from the Southern California area. That included 190,000 school children, and every Long Beach Unified School District third grader was given a free pass to the aquarium.

The aquarium staff also reached out and created deals and programs with the California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach City College, International City Theatre, the Museum of Latin American Art, the Long Beach Museum of Art and more. The aquarium also paid for and helps staff the science department for downtown’s Cesar Chavez Elementary School.

“As a resident of Long Beach, I know this is one of the greatest opportunities this city has to have a vibrant cultural center,” Schubel said.

For those just concerned about the bottom line, the aquarium is good for the city there too, Schubel said.

The aquarium generates $42 million each year for the Long Beach economy, according to a new study just released by the Aquarium. For the Southern California region, Long Beach generates $150 million, the study found.

While the new rent deal voted on by the council looks at the long term, Schubel and aquarium staff also is looking at the short term — specifically next summer.

A new exhibit focused on poisonous fish and creatures will open then. The focus will be on anything that “bites, stings or is venomous,” Schubel said. At least 75% of those will be marine animals, but spiders and some other land animals also will be part of the exhibit, he said.

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