The San Antonio Zoo has been sitting on a piece of property across U.S. 281 since it began operating in 1914.
Now, 112 years later, one of the city's top tourist attractions is making its way across the highway. The zoo is planning an estimated $50 million to $60 million expansion, including a new section showcasing native Texas species, an animal hospital and an educational building. The project covers approximately 3 acres and would result in a 10% increase in guest space.
"The zoo is busy, and we're seeing record attendance this year with the addition of Congo Falls," zoo President and CEO Tim Morrow said. "We've strategically been working toward this for 10 years."
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In its annual report, the zoo estimated it had an economic impact of $283 million last year, drawing nearly 1.2 million visitors. In June, Condé Nast Traveler named it one of the best zoos in the world. USA Today ranked it No. 7 among the nation's top 10 wildlife destinations in its 2026 "10 Best" Reader's Choice Awards.
The zoo's goal has been to have a new project every year that aligns with funding it receives city bonds and leverages donor funds. It started with the parking garage expansion, which was completed in 2021. Then it upgraded and expanded the zoo's entrance for greater efficiency in late 2023. In December 2025, it celebrated the return of gorillas after 35 years with the opening of its largest enclosure, Congo Falls.
"It has all gone so far, knock on wood, as planned," Morrow said.
This next phase will help boost the zoo's educational programming, which is already operating at capacity.
There will be enclosures dedicated to native species, such as horned lizards, mountain lions, ocelots and porcupines. The expansion also will highlight the zoo's conservation work with Edwards Aquifer species, including Texas blind salamanders, and its Center for Conservation & Research by giving guests an up-close look at the center's work to protect endangered species and what it takes to bring a species back from the brink of extinction.
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"Many kids live in inner cities, where they don't see animals like porcupines or horned lizards anymore, so we're really educating the kids about these species that live or used to live right here in our area," Morrow said. "You need to know about them to understand what has happened to them and how we can help them in the future."
The educational building will help expand the zoo's programming for nature-based education, camps and field trips year-round. The zoo currently boasts the Will Smith Zoo School for pre-schoolers, kindergartners and first-graders. Morrow said the goal is that the new building will allow them to host pre-K through fifth-grade students.
"Our camps and our field trips are at capacity," Morrow said. "We did 123,000 field trips last year, so we're very busy with field trips. There's not a lot of space to put the kids in if they want to be in classrooms for anything, and same with our camps. So, we want every child in San Antonio to have the opportunity to come to the zoo on field trips."
The new animal hospital will have an on-site classroom and public viewing areas for guests to watch veterinary staff complete surgeries, checkups and lab work. The zoo hopes to partner with local high schools, colleges and state universities for educational opportunities and internships alongside the zoo's veterinary team.
" There's a major shortage of veterinarians in the United States, so we want to start connecting our veterinarians to students at an early age now," Morrow said.
To access the expanded zoo footprint, guests will walk underneath the U.S. 281 bridge, which Morrow said the zoo plans to transform into a cave- or aquifer-like experience that tells the story of the Edwards Aquifer.
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The zoo is in its initial design phase for the expansion, working with St. Louis-based PGAV Destinations, an international zoo design firm. Morrow said the zoo hopes to break ground in 2028, and construction could take 18 months to two years.
The majority of the funding will come from donations, but it's also working with the county and the state for assistance.
The San Antonio Zoo also plans to ask the city, which owns the 15 acres west of U.S. 281, for support on the project. The land has no infrastructure, so the zoo will need power, water, drainage and a lot of improvements on that site to be able to build. The zoo hopes to receive funding through San Antonio's Midtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, as it has previously for its other phases.
But Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said she wants to pull the plug on the zone so that the tax revenue tied to it will instead eventually flow to the city's general fund to pay for basic services such as police protection and libraries.
" Whatever we build becomes a property and asset of the city of San Antonio, so they're really investing in themselves," Morrow said. "The more we expand, the more people we can get to the zoo and the bigger economic impact we're going to have."
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This article originally published at San Antonio Zoo planning $50M to $60M expansion across U.S. 281.