Groundbreaking for Downtown Aquarium Not Particularly Fishy

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When the hosts of Monday’s “groundbreaking” for the new aquarium to be built in the Powerhouse at Nautica invited the assembled mob to return in six months for its opening, most were likely hoping that that will be a more exciting event.

The press conference featured a row of speakers that resembled Governor Kasich’s cabinet — white guys in suits — who spoke with the pizzazz of a comptroller presenting a financial report. Some posters and a slide show were scattered around the Riverview Room at Windows on the River, but the presentation itself lacked even a basic PowerPoint show or any video depicting the splashy interactive facilities New Zealand-based developer Marinescape has built in places like Sydney, Beijing, and St. Petersburg. Even handfuls of plastic fish on the tables would have jazzed up the event a little.