Restore Act funds for aquarium in Gulfport

Seventeen million dollars of Restore Act funds will go towards the Mississippi Aquarium.
Direct component funds and leveraged funding from the City of Gulfport will be used for construction of the Coastal Community Gallery building on the Mississippi Aquarium campus. The Coastal Community Gallery building is expected to be about 42,000 square feet including tanks and will serve as the primary aquarium building.
Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes says the U.S. Department of Treasury’s approval of Restore Act funding for the aquarium is confirmation of tireless work by countless people from the governor’s office to the local level. “Governor Bryant saw the value of having this family oriented attraction, this aquarium, and we just knew and know it’s going to be phenomenal once we get it done, but his support early on was very key. So in putting the Go Coast 2020, the Restore Act council together and figuring out where we’re going to put our monies, the focus was to do a legacy project, something that’s going to last for generations. The aquarium was such a good fit from a conservation, from a tourism, from an educational standpoint.”
The proposed Restore Act projects total more than $54.1 million.