Remember SkyVue Las Vegas? Doomed Ferris Wheel Land Up for Sale

Posted on: May 17, 2022, 04:41h. 

Last updated on: May 17, 2022, 10:27h.

Philip Conneller @casinoorgphilc Read More
Expertise: Gaming Business, Regulation, Tribal Gaming.

A 26-acre plot of land on the Las Vegas Strip that was once part of an aborted “London Las Vegas” project is on the market, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

SkyVue Las Vegas
The owner of the land on which these two weird columns stand is asking for $7 million per acre. (Image: LVRJ)

The land, on the south of edge of the Strip, is currently home to two blighted monoliths that were designed to hold “SkyVue Las Vegas Super Wheel,” a giant Ferris wheel that never was. The two 60 ft concrete columns have stood purposelessly across from the Mandalay Bay for the best part of a decade.

But the area is on the up, thanks to its proximity to the Allegiant Stadium and T-Mobile Arena, and the rejuvenation of Las Vegas’ post pandemic gaming market.

Real estate brokerage CBRE Group recently started advertising the plot for sale, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. Its owner, Shotgun Creek Investments, is asking for $182 million, or $7 million per acre.

Downward Spiral

Developer Howard Bulloch envisaged the SkyVue project as phase one of “London Las Vegas.” Approved in 2011, it was to be a 500-foot observation wheel that would have briefly been the tallest in the world had it opened on schedule. The 550-foot Linq High Roller was unveiled in 2014, and has since been eclipsed by the 820-foot Dubai Eye.

The initial phase was to include a roller coaster plus retail and restaurant space, and a display billed as “the largest outdoor advertising LED screen in the world.”

Phases two and three involved the construction of London Las Vegas, which was envisaged as a 1,300-room hotel-casino with 550,000 square feet of restaurants and shops. All of these would be architectural fascimilies of London landmarks and neighborhoods.

But the two concrete eyesores were about as far as the project got before it ran into financial difficulty, and Las Vegas has been saddled with them ever since.

Coming Full Circle

The plot went up for sale in 2015 for $10 million per acre, but it didn’t sell. Shotgun, which had provided financing for the SkyVue project, acquired the land during bankruptcy proceedings in 2020.

“Never in a million years did we imagine that we would end up owning a big piece of the Las Vegas (Strip),” Greg Perry, general counsel for Shotgun Creek, told the LVRJ. “But after a lengthy bankruptcy, here we are.”

Perry added that there had been little enthusiasm among interested parties for reviving the SkyVue project, and the columns are likely to be demolished.