Grapevine Mills Mall announced today it has landed a big fish with the signing of a $15 million agreement to bring a Sea Life aquarium to the property next year.

The city of Grapevine and The Mills, a division of the Simon Co. that owns Grapevine Mills Mall, signed an agreement with Merlin Entertainments to open the Sea Life aquarium attraction at the mall in the summer of 2011. The attraction will be located directly across from Merlin’s Legoland Discovery Centre, a $12 million Lego attraction announced last year and set to open at Grapevine Mills mall in March 2011.

“We have developed an excellent working relationship with The Mills and the city, and our initial commitment to build the Legoland Discovery Centre demonstrated our belief that the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, and particularly Grapevine and Grapevine Mills, is a perfect location for quality family-based leisure facilities,” said Glenn Earlam, managing director of Merlin Entertainments’ Midway Attractions group in the announcement. “We are therefore delighted to now also be able to take plans for a new Sea Life development to a second stage.”

Grapevine will serve as Merlin’s fourth Sea Life attraction to open in the United States. Initial plans call for a two-story, 45,000-square-foot aquarium that will house more than 30 displays of marine life including shrimp, starfish, seahorses, sharks and sting rays.

The centrepiece of the attraction will be a tropical ocean tank with a walk-through underwater tunnel.

According to the release, the Grapevine Sea Life attraction also will include displays with creatures native to both freshwater and coastal habitats of Texas.

“The Sea Life Aquarium will be the perfect complement to Grapevine Mills’ already celebrated shopping and entertainment experience,” said Gregg Goodman, president of The Mills in a release. “We look forward to our partnership with Merlin Entertainments and are confident that families will revel in the deep sea wonders that the aquarium will bring,”

Like in Grapevine, Merlin has paired its Sea Life and Legoland concepts at Legoland, California. The company also operates Underwater Adventures at the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minn., and will open a second stand-alone Sea Life at Arizona Mills in Tempe, Ariz., late this month.

“Bringing these two brands together will be a world first for Merlin, underlining our strategy of ‘clustering’ our short stay, indoor attractions together to the benefit of visitors. Without the commitment and support of both the city and The Mills, we would not have been able to progress plans for this second attraction so quickly,” Earlam said in the release.