San Antonio’s WildLife Partners moves forward with plans for $500 million safari park on South Side - San Antonio Express-News
San Antonio's WildLife Partners is taking the "first formal step" in its plans for a $500 million safari park on the South Side.
The company has hired Relevant Strategies & Solutions, a New Jersey consulting firm, to conduct an economic feasibility study and create an operating plan. It also will develop a site concept and address visitor experiences.
Brian Gilroy, WildLife Partners CEO, has said he intends to "revolutionize" the zoo industry. His company is best known for breeding and selling more than 50 species of non-native and exotic wildlife in Central and South Texas. It manages more than 7,000 acres of ranch land in Mountain Home, Goliad, near Pearsall and Carrizo Springs.
Now, Gilroy is devoting nearly half his time to the safari park. He expects to spend at least $250,000, but possibly as much as $1 million, on this initial phase of the project.
"I'm assembling a team of people that are creative minds and we're bringing them in with the mindset of recreating the entire way in which zoos are presenting animals," Gilroy said Wednesday. "We're trying to address what is the best way … to present wildlife to the public, because clearly the public wants to be able to experience wildlife and go to the zoo and interact with animals.
"We're just trying to reevaluate what is the best way to do this, what is the best way to interact and provide an educational and an entertainment experience while at the same time honoring wildlife."
Relevant Strategies & Solutions founder and managing partner Rick Biddle described the safari park as a "pretty exciting" concept.
"We share Brian's enthusiasm for looking at a new model and some new experiences, both for the visitor and for the animal," Biddle said.
He has been a consultant to the zoo and aquarium industries for about 30 years. In the 1980s, he worked as chief operating officer at the Philadelphia Zoo.
Biddle's company has retained Philadephia's CLR Design, a zoo and habitat design firm, to bring "innovation, technology, and out-of-the-box thinking" to the safari park project, WildLife Partners said in a statement.
The feasibility study is expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year.
WifeLife Partners and Relevant Strategies are evaluating "numerous locations"on the South Side where they hope to secure more than 1,000 acres for the park.
"Realistically, I'm hoping to be at the point of executing a contract on a piece of land before the end of the year or the first quarter" of next year, Gilroy said.
He previously identified more than 1,000 acres owned by Verano Land Group just north of Texas A&M-San Antonio as a possible home for the park, but has since expanded the search to include other sites.
pdanner@express-news.net
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