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As soon as the SuperBlock Master Plan for Des Moines’ South Side was approved last spring, the Blank Park Zoo Foundation (BPZF) went to work, hiring Emily Williams-Bouska as a capital campaign director in June and creating plans for a $40 million capital campaign that will fund expansion of the zoo from 23 acres to 103.

“I think this is too important of a project for economic development in Des Moines for us not to keep moving,” said BPZF CEO Terry Rich.

Since formally starting the campaign in August with a focus on getting big donations first, the BPZF has raised $12.5 million, with Bill Knapp donating $2 million, the Kruidenier family donating $1 million and the city committing $6.9 million for updating the current zoo to modern standards.

With funding commitments from the BPZF’s board of directors and other individuals before the campaign kicked off, the zoo is moving forward on adding $3.15 million in new exhibits and an amphitheater on the zoo’s current 23-acre site over the next couple of years. BPZF expects to begin moving dirt this spring and securing up to four Asian animal exhibits, which could include macaques, Asian bears, red pandas and gibbons.

“We’re already as a board stepping forward and committing dollars to get this thing up and going to push the projects down here,” Rich said, “because it would be easy to sit for three or four more years and think. It took three years to get the deal decided on to begin with.”

Campaign plans

The rest of the campaign will take place over the next five years in three additional phases. The second phase will seek to raise $20.7 million to expand the zoo onto 80 acres east of its current facility, adding a new site for African and North and South American exhibits, a tram system and new education and maintenance facilities. The third phase, totaling $6.9 million, will be paid for by the city for updating the existing zoo and re-creating the Australian and Asian exhibits. The fourth phase, $1.4 million, will go toward a new entrance, plaza and gift shop.

The goal is to work on these improvements in increments, adding something new each year to continue to draw crowds.

In addition to the capital improvements, the zoo also seeks to increase its endowment by $8 million to $18 million to cover the additional operating expenses that come with a larger facility.

Leading this fund-raising effort are co-chairs Loretta Sieman and Mike Hubbell and three former Iowa governors: Robert Ray, Terry Branstad and Tom Vilsack. The only other project the governors have worked on together, Rich said, is the campaign to preserve the U.S.S. Iowa.

Currently the team is meeting with companies and individuals who could be major donors and then will roll out the campaign publicly across the state in about six months to a year.

Star of the SuperBlock

Efforts to update and expand the zoo are part of a larger plan to enhance the SuperBlock, an area bounded by Army Post and County Line roads and Southeast 14th and Southwest Ninth streets.

Approved by the Des Moines City Council last spring, the plan calls for eight miles of trails, a new city park on the Fort Des Moines parade grounds, a new hotel and indoor water park, and streetscape improvements. Southridge Mall could also make improvements to its property and large developments are expected along the Iowa Highway 5 bypass, with a new ramp that will provide easier access to the zoo.

The zoo will likely be a main draw to the area, with the expansion putting it on the level of the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. But Blank Park Zoo will be different from Omaha’s in that it will be more modern, allowing people to see animals through glass or over moats rather than through fences, having a more park-like setting and bringing in herds of animals rather than just a couple of each species, Rich said.

“We’ve always been more intimate and closer to the animals,” he said.

Rich expects these changes to dramatically increase attendance. Already, events such as Zoo Brews and festivals such as the Latino Heritage Festival have increased attendance to nearly 400,000 a year. Yet it is nowhere near to reaching the same level of crowds as the Omaha zoo and even the Wichita zoo after it completed major renovations.

“We have a natural attraction; we just have one that’s 40 years old and very small,” Rich said.

With the zoo’s expansion, it also will likely attract people for longer than just a couple of hours. This could help maximize profits on food and drinks. The BPZF selected Bassett Associates in Ohio to draft the master plan, because the firm specializes in adding features, such as a skyride and tram, that could help boost revenues; only 12 percent of the zoo’s operating income comes from the city.

Recession proof?

Getting people to rally behind a capital campaign during a recession is difficult, said campaign director Williams-Bouska, but she points to a recent Giving USA Foundation report that showed that total giving in the United States has risen every year since 1969 except one (which was due to a tax law change that encouraged people to give early to maximize deductions).

Though many people and businesses have stepped up to help Iowa communities rebuild after the floods, the zoo administration has found that people also are looking for a new project to rally behind that will push Iowa beyond where it was during the floods.

“People don’t just want to rebuild and get back to where we were before,” Rich said. “They want something new and something to hang their hat on, and I think our project seems to resonate with that.”

Rich and Williams-Bouska also said that people are giving in other ways, through land, wills and life insurance policies, or are spreading out donations over several years.

“People have been asking for this project,” Williams-Bouska said, “and they’re anxious to hear about this project and now that it’s coming to fruition, they’re excited about it.”