Can World's Largest Ferris Wheel Be a 'Game Changer' for Staten Island?

Speaking with his trademark understatement, Bloomberg declared on Thursday that, "The New York Wheel will be an attraction unlike any other in New York City – even unlike any other on the planet." But will it be enough to get tourists to set foot on Staten Island?

According to Henry Goldman and Esmé E. Deprez, reporting in Bloomberg, in addition to the Wheel, which be designed and manufactured by the team that built the London Eye, "BFC Partners, a Brooklyn-based developer, will construct Harbor Commons, a 350,000-square-foot retail complex featuring 100 designer outlets and restaurants and a 200-room, 120,000- square-foot hotel south of the [adjacent minor league] ballpark, where an affiliate of the New York Yankees plays."

"The complex will generate $480 million in private investment and create more than 1,200 construction jobs and 1,100 permanent ones, the mayor's office said."