Plans moving for giant I-Drive Ferris wheel

A plan to redevelop the old Mercado Shopping Center on International Drive cleared its first hurdle when Orange County's Development Review Committee gave preliminary approval with conditions to plans for a 9 acre amusement park and shopping complex.

The biggest attraction will be a 425-foot Ferris wheel that will be the first of it's kind in the world. Paul Batt with Unicorp Development says it is a radical change from bicycle type wheels you know like the London Eye.

"This technology is fairly, radically different in that it does not rotate, the wheel itself does not rotate. There is no central hub. It is basically a roller coaster that travels at 1 mile per hour."

The Mercado property is currently filled with weeds, some of them 7 feet high, but soon jobs will be there instead.

"Construction wise probably a thousand jobs. I mean this is an 18 acre site, probably in the neighborhood of a $100 million project."

Batt estimates another thousand jobs once the attraction and shopping opens. The complex will also include an aquarium and Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum. I asked Paul Batt why his company would try such a massive development right in the middle of an economic downturn?

"A lot of times, people are looking for a means of escape, and this will provide an all day means of escape that is not quite thelevel of financial commitment that you have at some of the other attractions locally."

The next stop for the development will be the Orange County Commission. Most of the concerns from the DRC were over parking issues the company plans to resolve before final approval. They hope to start construction by the end of the year, and the building phase is expected to take 14 months.