Downtown Aquarium, Denver

Downtown Aquarium is a public aquarium and restaurant located in Denver, Colorado at the intersection of I-25 and 23rd Ave. The 107000sqft main building sits on a 17acre site adjacent to the South Platte River. Its freshwater and marine aquaria total approximately 1000000gal, and exhibit a variety of fish and other animals.The Downtown Aquarium in Denver is owned and operated by Landry's Restaurants, Inc., and is the largest aquarium between Chicago and California. It is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums .HistoryColorado's Ocean Journey was founded by Bill Fleming and Judy Petersen Fleming as a nonprofit entity. It was partially funded by a $57 million bond loan as well as loans by the department of Housing and Urban Development, and its total cost was $93 million. The facility opened June 21, 1999 and soon earned accreditation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).Although the aquarium was highly successful and the attendance was high for years, after the 9/11 tragedy in 2001, the number of visitors fell drastically within a few months, and the aquarium failed to meet its attendance projections of over a million visitors per year, in part because of a downturn in the U.S. economy. The aquarium was not able to make payments on its high construction debt, and Colorado Ocean Journey Liquidation Inc. filed bankruptcy April 2002 with a $62.5 million debt. After a last-minute bidding war with Ripley's Entertainment, Landry's Restaurants, Inc. purchased the facility in March 2003 for $13.6 million.