Could be repurposed as a conservation lake
Bristol Zoo (Closed) Bristol Zoo news 2021
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cliffxdavis
Well-Known Member
Has anybody worked out how much money BZ will make on this land sale deal?
How much will there be for adding to The Wild Place (hopefully to be renamed to Bristol Zoo when BZ mk1 closes.
How much will there be for adding to The Wild Place (hopefully to be renamed to Bristol Zoo when BZ mk1 closes.
Wild Place will be renamed. It's much too early to tell how much money the zoo will raise. The plans need to be approved, after the consultation meetings, and only then will the property developers know what they can bid for.
cliffxdavis
Well-Known Member
So they decided it was a really good idea with no idea of how much they would make.
They can be confident that as long as they do sell it, it will make a significant amount of money in that part of Bristol.
It would always be impossible for them to know exactly what they will get at that stage - if you decide to sell a single existing house you don't know the final price until the deal is complete, even more so with land for development. And of course they couldn't even get too far down the lines of working out potential architects' plans or seeking planning permission without announcing the plan publicly.
I am sure they took advice and estimated the sum, but there are too many variables to get a firm figure: for example, nobody knows how house prices will change in the next couple of years, as @Maguari has just commented. On the other hand, they did know exactly how much money they had in reserve and how much money they were losing during lockdown.
The amount of money generated from the sale will determine the speed at which the Wild Place site can be developed. I hope the figure will be large enough to enable rapid progress.
cliffxdavis
Well-Known Member
I agree but it is also true that when you sell your house you do know roughly what you will get, and that's how you decide what to buy next or whether to move at all.
I do not expect them to know exactly what they will get and I do not expect them to tell me.
I just hoped someone who understands these things would be able to look at the proposal and say "in the region of £xx".
The original Wild Place proposals were very exciting but as we all know £19 million buys you a visitor centre and two new enclosures. So if they were hoping to raise £20M from the sale I wont get excited but if it is £100M maybe we could look forward to a large tropical house as per the original proposals.
Obviously we will all have to wait but if this is not going to raise a huge amount of cash to invest in the Wild Place I think the loss of Bristol Zoo will be even harder to bear.
I do not expect them to know exactly what they will get and I do not expect them to tell me.
I just hoped someone who understands these things would be able to look at the proposal and say "in the region of £xx".
The original Wild Place proposals were very exciting but as we all know £19 million buys you a visitor centre and two new enclosures. So if they were hoping to raise £20M from the sale I wont get excited but if it is £100M maybe we could look forward to a large tropical house as per the original proposals.
Obviously we will all have to wait but if this is not going to raise a huge amount of cash to invest in the Wild Place I think the loss of Bristol Zoo will be even harder to bear.
Because the elephant /gorilla house is listed it will obviously stay and be converted into dwellings- all the artist impression drawings carefully still feature it. Maybe the outside gorilla area would then become a private resident's garden? They could keep the watermoat too, as a feature, but it might be a danger for children.
Overall, if it goes for development, then from the air I don't think you would see a lot of difference to the site- buildings in all the areas where there are buildings now, mostly round the perimeter, and with the lawns, central lake etc still largely as they are now.
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The Hedgehog
Well-Known Member
If I won the lottery I would definitely purchase the original and current Bristol Zoo. I have been to the Zoo a few times and have always enjoyed myself. My favourites were the Asiatic Lions and the Western Lowland Gorillas. I think both species have the best enclosures I have EVER seen for their type of Animal. The other Animal attractions I have seen Western Lowland Gorillas at are Paignton Zoo and Longleat Safari Park. I have seen many Asiatic Lion Enclosures and Bristol’s is the best by miles,quite literally in some instances.
If you had to choose 5 species to transfer to Wild Place which would you choose? I would choose the Western Lowland Gorillas,Asiatic Lions,Fur Seals,Penguins and Pigmy Hippos. Do you think that realistically my listed animals will move to Wild Place? I hope the new Bristol Zoo introduces further spices including Elephants,Chimps,Camels,Tigers,Sloths,Orangutans and Bintarongs.
Finally have any species already moved to Wild Place and has building work on the new enclosures begun?
If you had to choose 5 species to transfer to Wild Place which would you choose? I would choose the Western Lowland Gorillas,Asiatic Lions,Fur Seals,Penguins and Pigmy Hippos. Do you think that realistically my listed animals will move to Wild Place? I hope the new Bristol Zoo introduces further spices including Elephants,Chimps,Camels,Tigers,Sloths,Orangutans and Bintarongs.
Finally have any species already moved to Wild Place and has building work on the new enclosures begun?
I would suggest you see some more. Bristol's doesn't come close to some newer examples
Bristol's last pygmy hippo, Sirana I believe, left the zoo for a US institution in the last year.
The Hedgehog
Well-Known Member
@Rajang-GOAT can you please give me some examples of enclosures that are better than Bristol's and some that are worse?
littleRedPanda
Well-Known Member
@The Hedgehog Create a poll to see how it rates against the others in the opinions of the members
In the UK there are many Asiatic lion enclosures far superior to Bristol's including Chester, Edinburgh, Paignton, Cotswolds, Dudley and even London. When it comes to worse enclosures, I can't think of any within the UK but from photos the enclosure at Chessington appears to be pretty basic but having never visited there I'm not sure.
Gulf Breeze Zoo, Fla.
Chessington's is basic, just a rectangular area with some shrubs and a climbing frame, but is bigger than Bristol's enclosure. Bristol's enclosure has more vegetation for cover, but otherwise it is quite small and narrow, the lions don't have much area to get away from the public so easily.
Bristol's is comfortably the worst Asiatic lion enclosure in the UK, I would suggest.
JakeMPhillips
New Member
littleRedPanda
Well-Known Member
I have no idea who Frankie Bridge is 
Very interesting. Especially as the Guardian article now says it has been taken down as has breached an embargo...