By Daryl Major

Ocean Discovery Centre group seeks city’s approval to push project forward

Jan 23, 2017 | 10:16 AM

NANAIMO – It’s another step in the process for a group wanting to put an ocean-based tourism facility on the Nanaimo waterfront.

The Nanaimo Deep Discovery Association has launched a website that details what their proposed Ocean Discovery Centre may look like and what it would offer. Association spokesman Lorne Hildebrand says they still need to find a location and money to pay for the multi-million dollar project.

“The costing is something that we’ve had a pretty good look at,” said Hildebrand. “We think there will be a community fundraising campaign. There will certainly be federal and hopefully a provincial component if they agree to this stuff. But I’m really hoping that we’re not going back to the city at all for any funding other than maybe a cheap lease on a piece of land somewhere.”

The cost of the centre depends a lot on the attractions and amenities provided and getting approval in principle for the project from city council would help attract investors, according to Hildebrand.

“If we could just get the city to say, ‘listen move ahead with the plans. Bring us something a little bit later on. If you can make something like this work and pay for it, then we would really like to see the plan and we think this is an exciting project.’”

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Hildebrand says members of the association will be seeking that approval in principle at a Nanaimo Committee of the Whole meeting Jan. 23.

“I think that’s enough for us to go back to the various levels of governments and everybody else we’ve been talking to and say ‘listen, this is a reality.’”

The facility would be more than just a museum. Hildebrand says the buildings look would become an iconic symbol for Nanaimo, much like the Planetarium and Science World in Vancouver. Interactive displays and underwater tours could be possibilities, he noted. Hildebrand also points out that a study by accounting firm MNP found the project to be financially workable.

“They (MNP) looked at a number of facilities around the world. They looked at the costs, the number of people that go through and kind of the revenue and where and how you could locate these things. And they came up with a conclusion that this was quite a feasible project and could pay for itself and was very positive about the thing. So we took a lot of encouragement from that.”

There is no timeline for construction. Hildebrand is inviting people to check out the new website and offer feedback on the facility.