The centerpiece of a proposed $500 million retail and hotel project that aims to "bring new life and economic opportunity" to Staten Island, plans for the 625-foot New York Wheel were announced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg this week.
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."
FULL STORY: New York Wheel: World's largest Ferris wheel proposed for NYC
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