Attendance declining and director predicts budget shortfall
The Jackson Zoo continues to die on the vine, more than a year after managers voted to study relocating it, and eight months after the city entered into talks with a new firm to take over management.
Through June 30, just under 35,000 people visited the West Jackson facility, a roughly 58 percent decrease from the 61,000 that visited it during the same time in 2018.
That year was already a down year, with 27 percent fewer people visiting the park than in 2017, zoo records show.
On top of that, Interim Director Dave Wetzel said the zoo will not meet its projected budget for the year.
What was once the city’s most popular attraction has been in a holding pattern for more than a year, ever since the Jackson Zoological Society announced in March 2018 that it would study moving the park to the LeFleur’s Bluff Park in Northeast Jackson.
That decision set off a string of events, with Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and West Jackson leaders coming out in full force against it.
In August, the city issued a request for proposals for a new firm to oversee park operations. And in January, the administration began talks with ZoOceanarium Group, an international firm that manages facilities across the globe.
Contract negotiations with the group could wrap up by the end of August, according to Chief Administrative Officer Robert Blaine. “We’re reaching the very final phase of the talks and are excited that we’re about to complete them,” he said.
Meanwhile, the zoo remains in limbo. With fewer visitors, it has less revenues to bring in new exhibits or make much-needed improvements.
The park currently has no marketing budget.
Additionally, the zoo’s bare-bones staff has taken on multiple roles within the park to keep operations going. In all, the park has 20 full-time employees, nine part-time and two unpaid interns, according to spokeswoman E.J. Rivers.
On top of that, the Zoological Society’s future remains uncertain. The city has said that it hopes to keep the society on in some capacity, but it’s not clear what that capacity would be.
The nonprofit has managed the park for years. It’s most recent contract with the city expired in 2018, but has been extended to allow the society to stay in place until ZoOceanarium is hired.
Interim Director Dave Wetzel said the zoo will not meet its budget projections for the year.
In 2018, the park attracted approximately 74,000 visitors, down from almost 101,000 in 2017.
Proponents of moving the zoo say location is the problem. City officials, disagree, saying poor management has been behind 12 years of declining numbers.
A feasibility report conducted by the society in 2016 backs up supporters of moving the zoo. Revelations that former Zoo Director Beth Poff misspent bond monies to keep the park afloat gives credence to the city’s claims.
Poff resigned in the summer of 2018, after the city revealed that she had used about $350,000 in state bond funds awarded to the zoo to cover park operations.
The funds had been earmarked to make infrastructure improvements at the century-old facility.
Blaine said ZoOceanarium will bring resources to the table to, among other things, help market the zoo and create new exhibits.
As part of the agreement, the group not only will focus on boosting numbers but creating a 21st century zoo similar to attractions it already manages.
ZoOceanarium has offices in Dubai, Singapore and the United States. It manages the St. Louis Aquarium and created Green Planet, an indoor rain forest at City Walk, Dubai.
He said with those improvements, the zoo will again become a major draw for tourists and serve as a hub for the West Jackson community.
“What we’re concerned with is not how long it takes for the zoo to come back, but what a modern zoo is. We don’t want to create what we used to have, but design where we want to go in the future.”
Jeffrey Graves has his doubts.
Graves was president of the society when it voted to study relocating. His term expired last year.
He said bringing on a new zoo management firm might mean more resources for the park, but it won’t change the zoo’s biggest deterrent – it’s location.
“The reason we voted to relocate was the inability to sustain a zoo of that size at that location,” he said.
The 54-acre park is located at 2918 W. Capitol St., an area that is characterized by significant blight.
Between the I-220 exit and the zoo’s main entrance, motorists drive by numerous burnt-out structures, abandoned homes and overgrown properties.
A vacant commercial building surrounded by a chain-link fence is located right across from the zoo entrance.
The society had hoped to move the zoo to the LeFleur’s Bluff golf course, an area that stands in stark contrast to the Capitol Street corridor.
The course sits near the intersection of I-55 North and Lakeland Drive, two of the metro area’s busiest corridors, and would be near the Mississippi Children’s Museum and Mississippi Museum of Natural Science.
On average, the science museum brings in about 100,000 visitors a year, while the children’s museum logs between 180,000 and 200,000, more than twice the zoo’s current numbers.
“It (was) a no-brainer decision – relocating less than five miles up the road, near a tourist attraction that is one of the biggest in Mississippi,” Graves said.
Graves pointed to a 2016 feasibility study as a reason behind the board’s decision.
The study, which was conducted by Schultz and Williams, determined that the location was the park’s biggest detractor, not only to visitors, but also to donors.
According to that report, “100 percent of people interviewed had concerns about donating to the zoo at its current location.”
Additionally, a “handful of interviewees shared that their gift would be much larger if the zoo were to move.”
“Once we started doing feasibility studies, we realized the zoo was not sustainable (on Capitol Street),” Graves said. “A lot of traditional donors had flagged off what they had been giving to the zoo. They felt they couldn’t keep pouring money into a sinking ship.”
