The New York Wheel is back! Maybe. And it would be smaller.

EDC has held at least two recent meetings about reviving the failed project

A rendering of the New York Wheel (Credit: S9 Architecture | Perkins Eastman)
A rendering of the New York Wheel (Credit: S9 Architecture | Perkins Eastman)

Efforts are underway to try reviving the long-suffering New York Wheel.

The project’s developers announced in October that they were abandoning plans to build the 630-foot Ferris wheel on Staten Island, but the city’s Economic Development Corporation has held at least two recent meetings about reviving the development, according to NY1.

The project would be closer to 443 feet than 630 feet and would use the foundation that has already been built. A new developer would take over the project.

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CanAm Enterprises could be one impetus for bringing back the project, as it represents 412 foreign investors who contributed $206 million to the project for green cards under the EB-5 program. A new wheel would help those investors recoup their money.

The initial attempt to develop the wheel was plagued with cost overruns, lawsuits and long delays. Building a new wheel at the same site would likely speed up the long approval process that the first project went through. [NY1] – Eddie Small