I have some bad news for people who enjoy watching captured sealife perform tricks for humans in landlocked middle America!
A few years back, the OKC Zoo announced it would be sending its seals and sea lions to new temporary homes as it began work on a new and improved $27-million marine mammal exhibit.
Dubbed “Shore to Sea” – or as I like to call it, Aquaticus 2.0 – it promised to provide “an expanded and enriched habitat” for the zoo’s seals and sea lions while also “creating an exciting opportunity for guests to enjoy them from a fresh perspective.”
In addition to that, the Zoo teased the arrival of penguins!
Well, don’t start practicing your Morgan Freeman “March of the Penguins” impersonation just yet.
In a hard-hitting TLO-I Team 5000 exclusive, we’ve learned that the "Shore to Sea" project is massively over budget and is being redesigned to no longer include a sea lion exhibit.
This revelation comes from an email sent by OKC Zoo Executive Director Dwight Lawson to staff on Friday.
The email, obtained via The Ogle Mole Network, states that "the total project cost is now $51.925M—a shocking 93% overrun." As a result, the Zoo Trust has rejected all bids and opted to scale back the project’s scope to fit the original $27-million budget.
Key elements, including the sea lion portion of the exhibit, are being cut, leaving staff, visitors, and even the Zoo's displaced sea lions wondering when—or if—the final project will live up to its ambitious promise.
You can view a screenshot of the email here. The full text is below:
Dear Zoo Team,
I want to provide everyone with an update on our sea lion and penguin exhibit project, Shore to Sea. This project has been in process for quite some time, so here’s some background and a narrative on where we are:
We started planning for a new sea lion exhibit back in March 2021 with a design team headed by Beck Design and Studio Hansen Roberts. We added a penguin exhibit to the project a year into the design phase, based on advice that combining life support systems would be more cost-effective than doing the penguin exhibit later.
The initial budget for the sea lion exhibit was $13M, and the initial budget for the penguin exhibit was $7M. At the end of the design process, the estimator hired by the design team projected the cost to be $27M. This was the project budget approved by the Zoo Trust, which was handed to the construction management firm, JE Dunn, last year to assemble a construction team and begin work.
JE Dunn went out to obtain bids from a variety of subcontractors and came back with an estimated rough cost of $37M. At that time, my hope was that competitive bids from subcontractors and a value engineering process would bring the project closer to $30M, which would align better with our master plan and future needs. Unfortunately, the construction market in Oklahoma City is extremely competitive right now. It proved difficult to get competitive bids, and in some cases, we couldn’t get bids for certain trades at all. After rebidding several trades to assemble a full set of subcontractors, the total project cost is now $51.925M—a shocking 93% overrun.
Before I continue, I want to chime-in real quick –
You’re telling me that in the post-pandemic landscape – a time where rising inflation, dysfunctional supply chains, global trade wars, and other economic factors made construction costs skyrocket – that Zoo officials were warned the project was coming in over budget, but they thought it would be okay because costs would go… down?
Like, when in the history of construction has that ever happened?
Even Elok – the Zoo’s resident orangutan – thinks that’s some monkey business decision-making! Have the fumes from all the Mold-A-Matic machines gone to Zoo leadership’s heads!?
Here’s the part of the email where Lawson says the project is essentially on hold and being redesigned to not include a sea lion exhibit:
After many discussions with the City attorneys, design team, and construction management firm, the only realistic and legal path forward was for the Trust to reject all bids and instruct the design team to redesign the project within the original budget. This decision was made at their meeting earlier this week.
With current construction pricing, this redesign will result in a marked reduction in the scope of the project—removing major elements. We will begin this redesign in the coming weeks, but I want to make you aware that we won’t be able to move forward with a significant portion of the project at this time, such as the sea lion portion of the exhibit.
Yep, that’s right. What was originally pitched as a new and improved "marine mammal exhibit" for sea lions, will now no longer include sea lions. That’s like moving out of your house to remodel the kitchen, but ending up with a new bathroom!
Let’s wrap this up:
This doesn’t mean that elements or exhibits will fall off our master plan entirely, but timelines and prioritization will change. We aim to restart construction on the remaining Shore to Sea project sometime in 2025 after the redesign is complete. I will provide further updates as we refine the scope of work.
Thank you for your patience and understanding during this particularly turbulent time in the construction world. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions, and we will discuss this further during the upcoming town hall.
Quick Question – Where does the OKC Zoo hold its town hall, and are all the animals invited? That would be kind of cool. I can see all of them gathering in the Roughneck Pavilion, sharing and voicing their concerns:
“Okay, now we have a question from the Red Pandas. Steve - what’s up?”
“We, along with the Komodo dragons, have seen a noticeable drop in the quality of acts at the Zoo Amp. Any reason why?”
“No comment. Next question.”
Anyway, I’d like to wish a fond farewell to the Zoo Sea Lions who now suddenly find themselves without a home! I hope they enjoyed their time in OKC and, wherever they end up, land gracefully on their flippers.
In the meantime, let’s hope the Zoo’s leadership brushes up on construction economics, figures out how to salvage this project, and ensures Shore to Sea doesn’t end up being nothing more than a sweaty penguin habitat and a fancy koi pond.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
