(Reuters) - Paris has the Eiffel Tower and now a developer is hoping to give Miami its own eye-catching landmark.
Jeff Berkowitz plans to raise $300 million to $400 million, partly from Chinese investors, to build the 305-meter tall SkyRise Miami tower. It will feature fine dining, as well as a bungee jump platform, and a vertical "drop ride" that will send thrill-seekers plummeting 50 stories.
"This is going to become Miami's Eiffel Tower," Berkowitz said, estimating it will attract 3.2 million visitors annually.
The structure will have the shape of a vertical hairpin and will be open at the sides to allow hurricane-force winds to blow through.
The steel and glass monolith designed by Arquitectonica, one of Miami's top architecture firms, will have to go through the permit process with local authorities. It has the support of city officials, including Miami Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which must approve building heights and flights paths in and out of Miami International Airport, okayed the building project a few days ago.
Jeff Berkowitz is negotiating an agreement with South Florida-based General Growth Prosperities, the owners of the waterfront shopping center in Miami where the proposed tower will be built.
The project started three years ago. In 2011 and 2012 developers and architects made several trips to Toronto for wind tunnel testing to ensure the tower can withstand the hurricane-force winds that sometimes hit Miami.
Tishman Construction, builder of both the original and new World Trade Center will serve as general contractors. Montreal-based gsmprjct°, which designed the observation deck atop the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, once the world's tallest building, will handle the one that will sit on the SkyRise tower.
Berkowitz is planning a three-city tour of China in the coming month to attract potential investors. The plan is to tempt potential investors with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service's EB-5 visa program, which offers green cards to people who invest $500,000 and $1 million and create or save 10 jobs in two years.
adapted from Reuters
