Michigan zoo eyes polluted former landfill for $370M massive waterfront aquarium
Posted By: mlive on June 17, 2025. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
John Ball Zoo is considering a contaminated former landfill site in Walker for the location of its highly anticipated aquarium.
The zoo is undergoing due diligence for a collection of parcels at the site of the former Fenske Landfill along the Grand River in the city of Walker, according to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE).
“We are currently performing due diligence on a 190-acre site in Walker where this project could be located,” Peter D’Arienzo, CEO of John Ball Zoo, said in a statement.
“This is an important step for expanding the zoo’s mission of protecting wildlife and wild places and to ensure the aquarium is accessible to our community, has a positive impact on the air, land and water, and connects guests with other attractions in Kent County for the benefit of our entire region.
John Ball Zoo has teased the prospect of building an aquarium in West Michigan for several years. In May 2023, officials announced it would pursue building the aquarium in Kent County after also considering Muskegon County.
Last month, D’Arienzo told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press the project is estimated to cost upwards of $370 million, and that he wanted to build the aquarium on a waterfront site and open the facility by 2031.
The development would generate more than $3.4 billion in net economic impact, contribute more than $268 million in new state and local tax revenue during its first 11 years of operation and create about 2,500 new local jobs, D’Arienzo said.
The aquarium, along with Acrisure Amphitheater and Amway Stadium, was highlighted by Destination Kent as a potential beneficiary of the successful 2024 ballot measure to raise Kent County’s hotel tax from 5% to 8% to help fund tourism-oriented projects.
D’Arienzo has said the aquarium will need at least 15 acres of land, but that he would like to have as many as 30 acres. The acreage is needed not only for the aquarium but also pump rooms, a warehouse, filtration systems, emergency fish tanks and 2,000 parking spaces.
The Fenske property is owned by New Era Land, LLC, a company associated with Dan Hibma, a prominent West Michigan developer who owns a host of apartment complexes across West Michigan.
The property’s history of industrial pollution will need to be addressed with any redevelopment. The former landfill accepted liquid industrial waste, solid industrial waste and solid municipal waste, from 1967 until solid waste regulations were passed in the 1970s, according to EGLE.
Metal hydroxide plating sludges were also stored on-site, in a waste pile. Clean closure of the waste pile was achieved in June 2008.
Hibma purchased the former landfill in 2001 and had been trying for years to redevelop the property.
In 2002, the Walker City Commission denied Hibma’s request to rezone the property from industrial and agricultural to a planned unit development for an 848-unit apartment complex.
Residents voiced concerns about the amount of traffic the development would generate near Kenowa and Wilson avenues.
Hibma came back a year later with another proposal for 102, four-plex condominium buildings on the site, as well as a nine-hole golf course along the Grand River to the south. He also proposed two commercial lots along Wilson Avenue west of Butterworth Street SW and I-196. That proposal, too, failed to come to fruition.
Over the years, he’s also discussed building a marina and seasonal campground on the property.
Due to the previous acceptance of industrial and municipal wastes, and the management of metal hydroxide plating sludges, EGLE sampled the site’s groundwater for the presence of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in July 2021. The site was found to have a low level of PFAS contamination. The highest result in groundwater was 91 parts per trillion for PFAS.
The substances also were found after landfill leachate was indirectly sampled through a gas vent well in August 2021.
Kent County, which owns John Ball Zoo, did not say whether it was for or against redevelopment of the contaminated site.
“We look forward to reviewing John Ball Zoo’s proposal once it has completed its due diligence on a potential aquarium,” Assistant County Administrator Lori Latham said in a statement.
“Given the site’s history, any future use must address environmental liability and meet all regulatory requirements to return the property to productive use while safeguarding the environment and the health of those who may work on or visit the site.”
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