US$50m (€46.2m, £34.8m) plans to develop Clearwater Marine Aquarium’s facilities have started to make waves after the operator secured necessary approval from the city’s Community Development Review board for expansion.

The Florida-based aquarium suffered a blow in May last year, when officials backed out of a US$68m (€60.5m, £44.8m) downtown move due to timeframe concerns.

The new plan presented to the board calls for the attraction to more than double in size from 60,000sq ft (5,500sq m) to 130,000sq ft (12,000sq m). One of the main developments will be an expansion of the aquarium’s famous dolphin tank, which will increase from 500,000 gallons in size to 1.4 million gallons. A new food court, coral reef exhibit, lab rooms, a theatre, facilities for animal life support systems and a new parking garage with space for 440 vehicles are also included.

With two motion pictures based on the aquarium and its dolphins Winter and Hope coming out in recent years, attendance has increased to more than 800,000 in 2015. The expansion would accommodate increased interest in the attraction, though some local residents and business leaders say the aquarium has outgrown the mostly residential area in which it resides.

Funding for the expansion is coming from donors, corporate sponsors and government grants. A time frame for the development has still not been decided, though the original plan would have seen work completed by April 2017.

Clearwater Aquarium backs out of US$68m downtown move

Huge $160m aquarium planned for Clearwater downtown waterfront