Commentary by Joachim Fischer
London has it, Singapore has it, for Berlin it’s turned into a mere “maybe“ – Beijing is standing on shaky ground and as to Orlando – we’ll see!
This is the present situation on the novelty so eagerly awaited by the cities’ tourism professionals.
According to reports by “BZ“, Berlin’s largest newspaper, based on information from Frankfurt banking circles, financing of the Berlin and Orlando Ferris wheels is more than questionable.
Dreams of a 185 meter high observation wheel on the former “Platz des Futterhauses” by train station “Bahnhof Zoo”, as well as plans for an expansive events and reception area have since been scaled down. There are now talks of “just” 175 meters, and the much advertised events section keeps shrinking, as well.
The planners and operators had spoken downright euphorically of a launch in 2009 – meaning this year – but were forced to postpone it time and again. Today, there are very cautious predictions for a launch in 2012.
According to BZ, the pre-construction arrangements have swallowed about €50 million so far – money from German investors in Ferris wheel fund “Global View”. Another €70 million were supposed to be financed through bank loans.
“Were supposed to”, because several banks have since withdrawn from their promises of 2008 due to the global economic crisis. They probably found the air was too thin in 175 meters elevation, or maybe the 36 40-seat gondolas were too “shaky”. The managers of private bank Delbrück Bethmann Maffei (DBM), inventor and seller of the Ferris wheel fund, are frantically seeking new funding – with no success so far!
Should these attempts fail, it would make construction of the Berlin Wheel impossible, and the investors would have quite literally run not a sky castle, but a Ferris wheel, into the ground. The situation was viewed rather drastically in a tumultuous investors’ meeting where investors accused the bank management of running the investors’ money “into the sand” and demanded comprehensive clarification on the future of the Berlin Ferris wheel, newspaper BZ found out.
To make things worse, there was asbestos found on the construction site, resulting in the district office not granting a building permit for the time being and thus more delays – not to mention the issue with finding new financiers and the question of how long the investors will be willing to go along with this “drama”.
According to BZ, about 10,000 German investors have invested a total of €208 million in the Ferris wheel fund in 2006 and 2007.
Aside from the Berlin wheel, these funds were also supposed to finance a wheel in Beijing and another in Orlando, Florida.
Funding in Beijing is supposedly secure and the foundation is laid; the Orlando project, however, has temporarily been halted.
That such a Ferris wheel would be a new attraction in the city of Berlin and have a positive impact on the surrounding businesses, especially in the “Zoo” area in Charlottenburg, is a given. The question that arises today is: will it come or will it not?
This marks another of several issues in the not always tourism-centered Berlin – along with the see-saw around the ICC, Tempelhof Airport, the new, increasingly costly Schönefeld Airport and an exhibition corporation that is now even planning to build a hotel of their own. It is about time that Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit stop dreaming of a candidacy for Chancellor, but rather show that he is still interested in the city of Berlin. Maybe he should take a step down, get back down to earth and activate his dubious “tourism round table” that nobody really knows of who is part of it and what they’re doing there in the first place, and start to take care of things and get active.
Since these are no partying dates involving smiles for the camera and meetings stars and starlets, but tough political sessions, the majority of Berlin citizens do not expect an intervention, much less an interest from the mayor, whose most essential interest should really be the good of his city.
