Syracuse, N.Y. – One of Onondaga County’s development agencies on Monday approved a $1 million grant to help the nonprofit Friends of Onondaga County Aquarium begin acquiring animals before the aquarium’s opening next summer.

Stocking the facility is a monumental task that will involve, for example, breeding sea dragons captured off the coast of Australia and flying their offspring to Syracuse in 60-degree seawater.

The $1 million grant from the Onondaga Civic Development Corp. follows a previous grant of $250,000 to the Friends group that was awarded by OCDC in October 2024. Those grants far exceed the amounts usually given out by the OCDC.

The local development corporation sells bonds to finance large development projects by hospitals, universities and other nonprofit institutions. Fe

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