RUNNING WILD.

• Author: Wanbaugh, Taylor

With a repair backlog and a rural location inhibiting visits; the North Carolina Zoo needs investment, proponents say. State lawmakers are paying attention, buoyed by a director with turnaround experience.

When the North Carolina Zoo opened in 1974, it was expected to become a mecca for visitors and animals alike. Organizers envisioned a wildlife wonderland, with a spread of creatures from the seven continents as well as the seas. After much competition with other areas, lawmakers picked the rural, manufacturing town of Asheboro for the statewide attraction because of available land and its proximity within 90 minutes of the three major state metro areas.

Nearly 45 years later, state officials are intent on revitalizing the venue, led by a top executive who turned a smaller, troubled Ohio zoo into a winner before coming to North Carolina three years ago.

It's clear that when North Carolina established one of only two state zoos in the U.S., state leaders made a bet that has yielded mixed returns. Increased visitor dollars have helped Asheboro cope with the loss of key manufacturers, while the zoo's design, animal conservation efforts and programming for schoolchildren have gained widespread acclaim.

But development at the zoo has been slow as attendance plateaued and state investment has failed to keep up with maintenance costs. The facility now has more than $20 million in repair needs that have remained unmet for years. Only two of the seven original concepts have come to fruition since the zoo opened: the North America and Africa sections. While Randolph County's population nearly doubled since 1970, slightly below the state's rate, urban counties have exploded: Mecklenburg tripled and Wake grew fivefold.

With revenue far below costs of maintaining and building the facility, the zoo has been forced to compete with more pressing needs for increasingly scarce state dollars. State officials spent a meager $66 million from 1964 to 2014 for zoo expansion and maintenance.

"It's a fantastic zoo, and they do a great job with the programming," says Wit Tuttell, executive director of Visit North Carolina, the tourism arm of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina. "It's just a matter of getting people to know about it. It's a competitive market out there. There's a lot of competition when it comes to things people want to do and see."

The term "zoo" is actually a huge misnomer, according to N.C. Zoo Director Pat Simmons. Many visitors don't know the facility is more of a wildlife preserve than a classic zoo, with 500 developed acres on a total of 2,600 acres, and they don't plan accordingly, she says. That can be especially true for newcomers to the state who may expect to see a tightly spaced series of landscapes that make it easy to spot a few of the zoo's more than 1,600 animals.

"It is a very, very different business model," Simmons says. When most people think of zoos, they "tend to be smaller in acreage and people come to them because it's easy. It also feels more comfortable because it's in your town and you aren't going out through multiple counties to get to a place." At North Carolina's zoo, "you're actually in the woods with the animals, and it is big...