While New York City grapples with rebuilding after Superstorm Sandy, developers are pressing ahead with plans to build the world’s largest Ferris wheel on the shoreline of storm-torn Staten Island.
Sandy’s flooding spurred some changes to the nearly $500 million project, which includes an outlet mall and hotel. But developers haven’t slowed it or scaled it back.
Supporters say Staten Island needs the boost now more than ever.
Some residents have asked whether it makes sense to push ahead with a tourist attraction, set partly in a flood zone, before officials take a comprehensive look at how to build smarter after Sandy.
Wheel developer Richard Marin says the project stands to provide a one-of-a-kind boon that Staten Island “would have no other way of getting right now.”