A new $41 million welcome center, office complex, and veterinary hospital is coming to Norristown’s Elmwood Park Zoo this summer, writes Emma Dooling for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

The 100-year-old attraction will open the 39,000-square-foot facility the first week of June before it moves on to the next phase of its master plan.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new addition will be held on May 31, said Al Zone, CEO of the Elmwood Park Zoo and its owner, the Norristown Zoological Society.

The development will feature an outdoor plaza with a fountain and a welcome center with a coffee shop, along with a 4,000-square-foot gift shop and a ticketing area. It will also include exhibits where guests can get the chance to learn about the importance of zoos and Elmwood Park Zoo’s conservation efforts.

The zoo plans to add a restaurant next to the welcome center eventually.

The welcome center will make it possible for visitors to look into a treatment area in the veterinary hospital and observe procedures such as “a root canal on a jaguar or trimming the nails of one of [the] eagles,” said Zone.

Read more about Elmwood Park Zoo’s new welcome center and veterinary hospital in the Philadelphia Business Journal.

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