Opening in 1894, St. Louis’ historic Union Station shut down in 1978 when Amtrak relocated.  The location was turned into a shopping mall in 1985, which was initially popular but has lost its appeal over the years.  To revitalize the community, St Louis will now undergo a major renovation with an one-million-gallon (total volume) public aquarium at its heart.

The main exhibit of the St. Louis Union Station Aquarium will be a 385,000-gallon shark tank, a proven crowd-pleaser.  And as we have come to expect from modern public aquariums, the main exhibit should feature a walk-through tunnel.  The aquarium will be surrounded by a hotel, boutique food stalls, a themed restaurant, a 200-foot-high observation Ferris wheel, a “Fire & Light Show” over a lake, a new boardwalk.

Construction is set to begin this year (2016) with a planned completion date sometime in 2018.