Welcome to State o' the Garden State, a Curbed feature in which we explore the new developments in New Jersey neighborhoods across the Hudson from Manhattan. Have a new development you'd like us to consider? Let us know via the tipline.
Staten Island may not be able to claim the world's largest ferris wheel for long if billionaire Reebok founder Paul Fireman has anything to do with it. Fireman wants to bring that title (and much, much more) to Jersey City, where he has, in recent months, been quietly floating a proposal for an absolutely insane project that would include a 95-story tower with a Las Vegas-style casino, a hotel, and apartments, as well as shopping, an entertainment complex, and a 107,500-seat stadium for motor sports. And the world's largest Ferris wheel. The whole thing would abut the 160-acre golf course that Fireman has already managed to build on top of a toxic dump. (The golfers are probably going to love the noise from those motor sports.) The whole thing is basically the stone soup of hedonistic megadevelopments.
The proposal faces one major obstacle (in addition to the thousands of minor obstacles that you can probably imagine) which is that building a casino anywhere outside Atlantic City would require New Jerseyans to vote to amend the state constitution. Despite that, Jersey politicians seem highly optimistic. "It will blow away Macau as a destination place for gaming," Senator Raymond Lesniak told the Star Ledger. The whole project, called Liberty Rising, would cost around $4.6 billion.
· Reebok Founder Proposes 95-Story Tower With Casino for Jersey City [NYT]
· A casino in Jersey City? Venture capitalist wants to make it happen [NJ]
Photo by JSsocal
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