Atlantis Aquarium is getting a new name

In two weeks, Riverhead's new 100-room Hyatt Place hotel will open on West Main Street, the new butterfly exhibit next to it will get its first visitors and -- after 11 years -- the Atlantis Aquarium will change its name to the Long Island Aquarium and Exhibition Center.

Bryan DeLuca, the aquarium's executive director, said the name change is being made to show that the aquarium is not just for day-trippers, but a jumping off place to the North Fork vineyards or to boating trips on the Peconic River.

Since it opened, nearly 11 million people have visited. Aquarium officials are not projecting how many more visitors the new facilities will bring to downtown Riverhead -- the aquarium itself draws 400,000 people a year -- but they point out that a new catering facility, the aquarium's Sea Star Ballroom, will also open later this year.

"The hotel has bookings up to December 2013. I was surprised when we checked it," said Johanna Zucaro, aquarium spokeswoman.

Already, behind the scenes, the square white plates and big white mugs in the coffee shop -- they meet Hyatt design standards -- are stacked up on shelves, awaiting the first customers. The meeting rooms are being used to train the 100 hotel staff members.

And DeLuca is already thinking about new ways to market the aquarium.

"We're becoming [more of] a destination," as opposed to a day trip, he said.

Plans are being completed for the July 1 ribbon-cutting.

DeLuca said the Hyatt Place East End will be the only brand-name chain hotel on a downtown Main Street on Long Island. He added that the hundreds of room reservations are mostly tied to weddings planned for the new 28,000-square-foot Sea Star ballroom.

He is particularly proud of the new butterfly exhibit, which is expected to remain for two or three years.

"Most butterfly exhibits are hoop houses . . . this is an enchanted garden," DeLuca said. "There's nothing else like it in New York State."