The manager of Bayside Marketplace has another towering attraction in the works: a rotating set of high-rise observation capsules.
The Miami Planning and Zoning Board has approved the 176-foot observation wheel, which would be smaller but comparable to the London Eye and the Wheel at ICON Park in Orlando.
SkyViews America hopes to erect the observation wheel at Bayside before the Super Bowl comes to Hard Rock Stadium on Feb. 2, 2020.
The observation wheel would comprise 42 glass-enclosed gondolas, each with sitting and standing room for eight passengers, and the ride would take as long as 15 minutes. Ferris wheels, by contrast, have open gondolas and usually rotate faster.
The amusement ride is part of plan by New York-based Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. to upgrade and expand Bayside Marketplace, a bayfront mall at 401 Biscayne Boulevard that opened in 1987. Ashkenazy took over the management of Bayside in January 2016 after acquiring 49 percent of the mall in December 2014.
Part of the planned expansion of Bayside is another high-altitude development called SkyRise Miami, a 1,000-foot observation tower and entertainment venue that developer Jeff Berkowitz is planning. [Miami Herald] – Mike Seemuth