The South Florida Wildlife Center will eventually leave its longtime home in Fort Lauderdale for a new campus in Southwest Ranches.
In late August, the center reached an agreement to lease an 8-acre property in Southwest Ranches as the site for its future hospital and wildlife care campus.
It remains to be seen how much the new center will cost or when it will open, said Jeffrey Arciniaco, the center’s president and board chairman.
“If we can bring in enough money we will build a bigger, better center,” Arciniaco said.
As a nonprofit organization, the wildlife center is launching a campaign to raise the money to build its new home.
The South Florida Wildlife Center, shown June 16 in Fort Lauderdale, plans to build a bigger, better center in Southwest Ranches. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
“We have exciting goals for the new center, but we can’t do it without the public’s support and donations,” Arciniaco said. “We’ve done so much with our existing facility and are looking forward to expanding and doing even more for the community. With human-wildlife interactions continuing to increase, our work is more critical than ever.”
The center cares for an estimated 8,000 animals a year at its 4.5-acre site in Fort Lauderdale, where it has been headquartered for more than 55 years.
The new property, procured in partnership with the town of Southwest Ranches and the Broward County School Board, will allow the organization to move forward with plans to build a new state-of-the-art hospital and expand its programs.
Construction is expected to begin in 2026.
The new center’s wish list includes a wildlife hospital with triage, surgery, labs, and specialized care units; education spaces, including an auditorium and wildlife observation areas; enhanced professional training capabilities for veterinary students, plus online programs for global rehabilitation centers; and upgrades to parking, administrative facilities and community engagement spaces.
Once it opens, the new facility will continue to serve all of Broward County along with Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties when needed, Arciniaco said.
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan
