[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Roadcruiser1

That picture of the amount of land available for development shows that it is a good idea to build a giant amusement park to go with the Ferris Wheel and the Stadium. It would also be a good idea to expand the terminal a bit with a mall, and to build a skyscraper on top of it to encourage tourists to visit Staten Island and more.

It's not as large as it seems. It's basically a parking lot. But yeah, there are plans for more retail.

Conceptual drawings show a retail terminal and exhibition hall behind the wheel, and next to it, a parking garage with 720 parking spaces and space for as many as 40 buses. 

A second EDC parcel, to the south of the ballpark, is slated to be turned into upscale retail shops, called St. George Station in the plans. The waterfront retail development would sit on a three-level car garage for another 1,550 cars.

Meanwhile, Seattle's Great Wheel is making a debut...


http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...86100O20120702

Seattle's new landmark Great Wheel opening on waterfront









By Laura L. Myers
Jul 2, 2012

The towering, white "Great Wheel" features 42 enclosed gondolas with space for up to 252 passengers total. The 175-foot-tall (53-metre-tall) wheel cost $20 million and was constructed as part of a private-sector initiative to revitalize Seattle's waterfront. While the 212-foot-high (66-metre-high) Texas Star is taller, it only operates during the annual State Fair of Texas in Dallas.

Seattle's new wheel "is like a baby London Eye," said 32-year-old co-owner Kyle Griffith, referring to London's famed 443-foot-high (135-meter-high) wheel along the Thames River. The London Eye is Europe's tallest Ferris wheel. The tallest in the world, Singapore's 541-foot (165-metre) Singapore Flyer, is more than twice as high as Seattle's newest attraction.

The Great Wheel was designed to draw visitors to the Pacific Northwest city's gritty waterfront, often framed by fog and drizzle, amid worries that a traffic-clogging construction project underway nearby would keep tourists away.

Globally, high-tech wheel rides are undergoing a resurgence after being out of vogue for 30 years, analyst Dennis Speigel, president of Ohio-based International Theme Park Services Inc, told Reuters. "Wheels are now the 'icon du jour,'" Speigel said. On Staten Island, New York, plans are in the works for a 600-foot-tall (183-metre-tall) "observation wheel" to become the world's tallest.

Two new wheels also are under discussion in Las Vegas, Speigel said. Developers broke ground on one, a 500-foot-tall (152-metre-tall) wheel in March 2011 across from the Mandalay Bay resort and casino. Another opened in South Carolina's Myrtle Beach last year. "Overseas, they're all getting taller and taller. In the next 10 years we'll see a 1,000-foot-high (300-metre-high) wheel," Speigel said.