Ferris Wheel Eyed for Ferry Terminal

By
• ELIOT BROWN

Tourists taking in the sites of New York Harbor on the Staten Island ferry may get a new reason to board the boat.

The Bloomberg administration is in advanced talks with an investment group seeking to build a giant Ferris wheel akin to the London Eye near the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, according to multiple people briefed on the details of the proposal.

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A Ferris wheel taller than the London Eye is being considered.

The plan for the structure would make it the tallest "observation wheel" in the world, lifting visitors roughly 600 feet, the people said.

By comparison, the London Eye, the popular 12-year-old tourist attraction on the South Bank near Parliament, is 443 feet tall, while Deno's Wonder Wheel at Coney Island stands 150 feet high.

Each year, the London site attracts about 3.5 million visitors who sit in large, glass-enclosed pods that offer panoramic views of London.

The investor group, Plaza Capital Group Management, responded to an August 2011 request for bids from New York City's Economic Development Corp. to develop two parking lots next to the terminal and on both sides of the Staten Island Yankees stadium. Plaza plans to develop the site furthest from the ferry terminal to the northwest, the people briefed on the proposal said.

Still, no deal has been reached, and a spokesman for the EDC, Benjamin Branham, said that the agency is "in negotiations with multiple respondents" for the two sites. Any development would need approval from the City Council.

Meir Laufer, Plaza's chief executive, declined to comment.

While further details about the proposal weren't available, Plaza appears to be trying to tap into the stream of tourists who ride the ferry from Lower Manhattan to Staten Island every day for a free harbor ride that offers views of the Statue of Liberty and the Lower Manhattan skyline. But once they land, they find little reason to stay.

The Center for an Urban Future, a nonprofit research organization, estimated in a 2007 report about Staten Island that more than 2 million tourists a year take the ferry, with few ever leaving to explore the island.

The area around the ferry terminal has long been run down, and there's little retail or entertainment other than the minor league ballpark.

"It's really hard to think of another place in New York City that has fallen so short of its potential for economic development," said Jonathan Bowles, the center's director. "There's no reason why you can't get significantly more tourists to stay on Staten Island for half an hour, or an hour."

On Monday, several tourists in the Manhattan ferry terminal waiting for a boat to Staten Island said they weren't planning on venturing onto the island, since they were riding to see the Statue of Liberty and city views.

"One of the big things [to see] was the statue," said Mary Lally, who was visiting the city from Granville, Ohio, with her three sons and husband. "We're turning straight back because we're going to see a play on Broadway later."

The Plaza group isn't the only developer that's tried to put an observation wheel in New York. Office landlord Douglas Durst and Tom Fox, co-founder of New York Water Taxi, unsuccessfully tried to convince officials to let them develop a large wheel on Governors Island more than two years ago, a proposed investment of around $100 million.

Mr. Fox said Tuesday that he considered the Staten Island site, but felt it had many challenges, including its distance—more than five miles from the tip of Lower Manhattan.

"We looked at the Staten Island site when it was offered and decided it really couldn't justify the investment," he said. "The further away you get, you get summer haze, fog, rain—all of them would obscure the view."

Write to Eliot Brown at [email protected]