The battle to be first to build a giant London Eye-style wheel on the Las Vegas Strip reached another level this week when one developer took the opportunity provided by a major shopping centres trade show in town to unveil the giant bearing which will be necessary to turn the wheel.
The project, which is to take place at the south end of the Strip next to the Mandalay Bay Hotel, will include other amusements, the developers say.
Skyvue’s Howard Bulloch unveiled the 23,000 pound bearing at a ceremony designed to encourage would-be tenants to sign up for the complex.
The wheel will be 500ft high and the third highest in the world. It will have 200,000sq.ft of retail and entertainment space at its base. Money is the problem for Bulloch, who needs US$175m for the project.
Meanwhile, Caesars Entertainment wants to build a similar project next to the Flamingo and the Imperial Palace. Caesars has the funds, $450m in loans, ready for the wheel and to complete its Octavius Town at Caesars Palace, but unlike Bulloch does not have final approval from the authorities.
