A new set of renderings were released following this week’s announcement for a new vision of Empire Outlets and the former New York Wheel site on Staten Island‘s North Shore. Designed by FXCollaborative and developed by theNew York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), the proposal, which was shaped through feedback from more than 1,000 residents, outlines the creation of a mixed-use waterfront neighborhood featuring over 2,500 new homes, open public space, community facilities, and expanded retail options in the reimagined mixed-use waterfront master plan. The site would span between the Staten Island Ferry Terminal and Empire Outlets to the east, and the North Shore Waterfront Esplanade Park to the west.
The main aerial rendering above looks at the entirety of the complex with several new low- and mid-rise residential towers that would rise along the western edge of the development. Upon close inspection of the rendering, it looks like the four slanted cylindrical concrete footings for the canceled 630-foot tall New York Wheel project will not be removed, but instead become part of a new landscaped waterfront esplanade. First announced in 2012, the observatory wheel was meant to become the world’s largest at the time of construction before work stopped in September 2018. The large abandoned and unfinished 110,000-square foot terminal building along Richmond Terrace would be saved and integrated into the new master plan. Meanwhile, three tall buildings appear to rise atop and around the existing Empire Outlets structure to the east.
Below are two new renderings showing the redesigned waterfront.
Rendering of North Shore Waterfront, credit: FXCollaborative.
Rendering of North Shore Waterfront, credit: FXCollaborative.
The announcement was made by NYCEDC President & CEO Andrew Kimball and New York City Councilmember Kamillah Hanks on Wednesday, with the support of Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella, who have extensively gather local input from the surrounding community, who spoke about the need to shift the focus from tourism and entertainment, as intended with the New York Wheel, to serving the needs of local and future inhabitants of all income levels and life stages.
The new plans follow the success of the Staten Island North Shore Action Plan, first unveiled in 2023 by Mayor Eric Adams, NYCEDC, Councilmember Hanks, and Borough President Fossella, which calls for a $400 million investment from the City to deliver 2,400 new homes, over 20 acres of public space, create more than 7,500 family-sustaining jobs, and generate an estimated $3.8 billion in economic impact over the next 30 years. Recent milestones surrounding the site include the opening of the Residences at Lighthouse Point with 115 mixed-income housing units in 2023, announcing a developer for New York City’s largest mass timber residential development in Stapleton, breaking ground on a new six-acre park at New Stapleton Waterfront, and kicking off the design process for a reimagined Pier 1 and North Shore Esplanade.
Empire Outlets and the former New York Wheel site must be rezoned, then go through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), and undergo an environmental review process that is slated to begin in the first half of 2026. The ULURP will likely begin in the second half of next year.
The plan also outlines future transportation and connectivity improvements, including a reconfigured NYC Ferry route linking St. George to Brooklyn and Wall Street, as well as new bike and pedestrian pathways along the waterfront.
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good start, but hopefully more density comes from areas around this too. If this proposal gets watered down again, it will fail.
Exactly whole area needs more density but nothing gets approved
No more freaking “mixed use affordable housing”! For Christ’s sake, the example in nearby Stapleton was Urby, that’s full of human “trash” and crime.
You have issues man
This sounds like NIMBYism.
Maybe you’re trash. Ever considered that possibility, little schoolboy?
Agreed. Ignore everyone else.
come on man stapleton has some troubles sometimes, but its not urby residents.
“housing across income levels”…there it is…this includes trash. How could I miss that?
I know we keep witnessing how terrible the wealthy are to other people and our democracy, but maybe the privileged who move to Staten Island won’t be as bad as the others.
Unfortunately probably will never happen as most things proposed in SI never comes to fruition
That is my worry. Too many big projects here never seen to get the attention they need to actually bring them to completion.
Great ideas but need to implement and approve quickly. What’s the point of all the new housing and the area is dangerous and empty. Hope it happens so that us residents that love living here can have the same as the West and East sides do the city. Our own space!
Great idea in my opinion. This section of Staten Island is really the only part of the borough that can support this level of density.
Hope the reality looks even remotely as good as the rendering. And what team is going to play in that baseball stadium? (Great views)
The Fresh Kills Dumpers.
bashing our beloved ferryhawks? oh no u dininnt — and fresh kills? lol you grandpas can both go back to the 1980s where you belong k thx bye.
The stadium has been there since 2001. It was the home of the Class A New York-Penn League Staten Island Yankees. That team played there until 2020 when Major League Baseball reorganized minor league baseball and killed that and other teams.
Since 2022, the Staten Island Ferryhawks of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball plays there. It is also used for a number of concerts, school graduations, and other events.
It is not a new development as part of the plan written about in this post.
What has become of Port Ivory?
Good Luck. The 2500 hundred ‘new homes’ will end up looking like NYCHA ia a few years.
You’re part of the reason the other four boroughs have a totally negative view of Staten Island.
First to say this need shuttle bus loops on Richmond terrace and rentable city bikes scooters, express buses n shore