Aquarium chooses builder for $130 million project

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Lakewood Ranch builder Willis A. Smith Construction has scored a major victory, in being named part of the builder team for the $130 million Mote Science Education Aquarium.

Forming a partnership with Orlando's Whiting-Turner Contracting, which has built a reputation as one of the nation's leading builders of aquariums, the Willis Smith/Whiting-Turner team rose above two other finalists, according to a story in the East County Observer, sister paper of the Business Observer. The announcement was made May 16 on the fifth floor of the Nathan Benderson Park finish tower in Sarasota, near the planned site of the new aquarium.