ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Como Park Zoo on Thursday opened a spacious new $11 million home for seven gorillas, including six that are new to Minnesota.

The new outdoor yard, which is covered by a giant mesh tent, is almost three times the size of the St. Paul zoo’s old enclosure, which was home to just two gorillas.

Zoo officials hope it’s an ideal place to raise a gorilla family, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

“Schroeder, one of our resident males, is now living with a group of three females,” zookeeper Adam Nigon said. “So I’m assuming that is a good change for him. Hopefully, in a couple of years, we’ll have little ones running around.”

The new exhibit is more secure than the previous open-topped design. One gorilla, Casey, made a celebrated escape from the old exhibit in 1994.

The Gorilla Forest is the newest of a series of high-profile expansions for a zoo that started as a fenced pasture with three deer in 1897. Since 2006, Como Zoo has added a Tropical Encounters exhibit and a $5 million Polar Bear Odyssey.

Zoo Director Michele Furrer said people are responding well to the new exhibits, and that zoo attendance has risen from about 1.5 million visitors a year in the late 1990s to more than 2 million annually.

“It is absolutely one of the biggest destinations in the state of Minnesota,” Mayor Chris Coleman said.

The zoo is open every day, year round. Admission is free, although visitors are asked to make a voluntary donation.