In September 1984, 43-year-old Mickey Ollson took a risk and opened a small zoo with less than 25 acres of land nearly 30 miles west of Phoenix, in the middle of nowhere.
Now, the 65-acre Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium, near Loop 303 and Northern Avenue, is poised to nearly double in size to 115 acres, and plans to add two exhibits over the next 21/2 years.
The new attractions, Safari Park and American Adventure, are part of the zoo’s bid to constantly evolve and entice visitors with new animals, rides, restaurants, playgrounds and more ways to interact with some animals.
Change is the secret to the zoo’s success, Ollson said of the complex that draws 400,000 visitors a year. The zoo will spend a total of $4 million to $5 million for both attractions.
“We’ve got that reputation among our visitors that there’s always something new,” said Ollson, the founder and director of the zoo. “If you haven’t been to the Wildlife World Zoo within the last year or two, you know you can go out there and they’ll have some new animals or you know they have a new exhibit building.”
The expansion will make Wildlife World almost as big as the 125-acre Phoenix Zoo, but the West Valley zoo’s officials say it already has more animals than its Phoenix counterpart.
The zoo says it has the largest collection of non-native animals in the state with more than 6,000 animals from 600 species, not counting the fish.
The Phoenix Zoo has more than 1,100 animals, said Phoenix Zoo spokeswoman Linda Hardwick.
That growth means more revenue, which keeps the zoo and aquarium afloat and draws repeat customers, Ollson added.
The projects
Two themed projects will fill part of the new land.
The first phase of Safari Park, an African animal exhibit, could open to visitors near the end of the year. American Adventure, which will feature species native to the Americas, is expected to be complete in 2 1/2 years.
Safari Park’s first phase is a $2 million construction project covering 15 acres.
It includes a cafe, restrooms, block walls, fences and landscaping.
The next 10 acres will be completed at a later date.
Safari Park is designed to include a rubber-tire-tram ride that will hold about 35 people and will travel around the outside of the exhibit.
Visitors can stroll along walking paths looking at animals, which will include lions, cheetahs, baboons, African wild dogs, monkeys, warthogs, red river hogs and large birds such as ostriches.
Last week, construction was under way for Safari Park.
As hundreds of visitors and busloads of schoolchildren toured the West Valley attraction, construction workers directly south of the zoo installed beams on a building entrance. One crew prepared to erect rafters on the top of a nearby building, while other workers graded foot paths.
American Adventure
Later, the zoo will start work on the 15-acre American Adventure exhibit.
It will include animals from North, Central and South America, such as wolves, mountain lions, bears and buffalo.
The American Adventure exhibit will have three indoor areas to view animals, a cantina that serves Mexican food and four rides. The first phase will include a family roller coaster that will roll through the exhibit.
Like other Wildlife World Zoo areas, American Adventure will try to connect visitors’ experience on theme-park-style rides to the animals it features.
In the “old time zoo,” people would walk around and see the animals, Ollson said.
That is the way it’s been since the 1960s in some zoos, he said.
“Now people want more,” he said. “They want to interact with the animals.”
The American Adventure is still in the design phase, but Ollson believes it could cost about $3 million, including the cost of the rides.
Ollson spent $2.5 million to buy 55 acres next door to the zoo for the two new exhibits.
He sold 5 acres to the state.
The remaining 10 acres have not been planned yet, but Ollson said he might use the land for a river ride.
Crystal Ames, 27, of Surprise, went with her daughter Kaydence, 6, to the zoo and aquarium Wednesday on a first-grade field trip.
While Kaydence and her brother Connor, 7, have been to the zoo before, it was a first for their mother.
Crystal said while riding the train, they passed the construction on the south side of the zoo.
“As a whole, dividing it (the zoo) up and having animals from all over is a good educational experience for the kids to see things they only see in pictures, because they don’t get to travel to South America to see it, so it’s definitely a good experience for them,” she said.
Financing growth
Expanding the zoo means more revenue and more visitors.
The Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium is funded by the entrance fees, gift-shop purchases, rides, cafes and rent from a Dillon’s restaurant beside the aquarium’s shark tank.
Adding exhibits increases the number of visitors, but the zoo also adds rides and eateries, which increases its revenue stream.
The longer people stay, the more they spend, Ollson said.
The zoo and aquarium’s annual revenue is about $8 million, and has been increasing about 5 percent per year for the past three years.
In 2009, after the aquarium opened, revenue jumped 35 percent over 2008 revenue, Ollson said.
Attendance grows about 5 percent per year. Half are repeat customers, Ollson added.
The for-profit zoo’s business plan is to reinvest all of its earned revenue back into the facility, Ollson said.
“We get no tax support whatsoever,” he said. “We’ve never asked for tax support.”
Growing with the Valley
When he started his zoo in 1984 at 165th and Northern avenues, Ollson didn’t have many neighbors and he wasn’t near a major freeway, but he welcomed a challenge, he said.
As the Valley has grown to almost 4 million people, the zoo now has a wider variety of customers, from schoolchildren to families to retirees to tourists.
When Loop 303 construction is complete, it will deliver customers practically to the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium’s gates.
“We’ve been fortunate because we are in the right place at the right time,” Ollson said.
The zoo’s property zoning allows it to build another aquarium, and there will be areas in the zoo that will be more than 30 years old when American Adventure is complete.
“We’ll come back to those areas that are over 30 years old, and we’ll improve on those and build new exhibits in the existing zoo,” Ollson said.
