Addressing the Niagara Skywheel's Planned Closure, and What it Means for the City

The Niagara Skywheel stands among the other attractions owned by the Harry Oakes Company in the 2010's.

If you haven't already heard, the Harry Oakes Company (HOCO), which owns the 

Niagara Skywheel and all the attractions on the same side of the street, has announced plans to demolish the Skywheel and build a new, taller wheel in it's place.  But this isn't just a simple upgrade.  It's part political response, part hope for the future, and potentially, the end of an era.

The then-new Skywheel in 2006.

To start this story at the beginning, the 53m tall Skywheel was built in 2006 by Chance Rides, with the Golden Griddle restaurant and Q-Balls Billiards Pub that were attached to the former Quality Inn being demolished to make way for it.  The Quality Inn as a whole would be demolished in 2009.  The Skywheel itself was a replacement for the Falls Tower Ride (formerly Space Spiral Tower) that had been built in the 60's a little down the street.  After a tower in New Jersey built by the same manufacturer around the same time began to have structural issues, the decision was made to pre-emptively tear down the Niagara tower in 2006 and build a new observation attraction.  

Aerial photo featuring the Comfort and Quality Inns, Clifton Hill, Dazzleland, and the Falls Tower Ride from around the year 2000.

This was all part of a much larger plan however.  This redevelopment plan had actually kicked off back in 2002 when the Dazzleland entertainment centre was replaced with the Great Canadian Midway.  With design firm White Hutchinson Leisure Learning Group working on the project, HOCO planned to build an amusement park around the Skywheel with an old-fashioned boardwalk/carnival theme.  This was the original reason Quality Inn was to be demolished, and the now-demolished Comfort Inn up the street would have been retained along with the original Dinosaur Park Miniature Golf.  In the large field between the amusement park and the Skylon Tower, a high-rise hotel with an indoor/outdoor waterpark was to be constructed as the final phase of the project.  For reasons still not completely clear to this day, this never came to fruition, however the recession, the rise of smartphones/social media, and changing consumer interests towards the amusement industry as a whole no doubt all played major parts.  After the shuffling around of some of the other attractions on the street such as Movieland Wax Museum, the Skywheel was the final part of this plan that ever saw the light of day before the aforementioned forces hit the timeline.  

Artist's rendering of the never finished development plan, featuring an amusement park surrounding the Skywheel, a still-operational Comfort Inn, and the waterpark hotel resort in the background.

Now, 20 years later, the Skywheel has become a political bargaining chip, and faces the wrecking ball itself.  Recently, as part of his "Building Ontario" initiative, Ontario premier Doug Ford had announced the construction of a massive observation wheel in Queen Victoria Park, the designated greenspace at the bottom of the Hill that's located across the street from the Niagara Gorge.  Now, the current political climate in today's society, and the global dystopian hellscape we currently exist in as a whole, could not possibly be further from what we discuss and focus on in this online community (we much rather discuss fiberglass dinosaurs).  That being said, in aside from the fact Doug has obviously shown where his interests lie in regards to the topics we do cover here (hence the Ontario Place fiasco), this news has created quite the uproar from the general public, and rightfully so.  The Falls are a natural marvel, deeply rooted in the early history of Canada, the U.S.A., peace between the two nations, and most importantly, the indigenous peoples who first saw it's beauty.  This greenspace, and the forested hill between it and the rest of the city, exists as the buffer.  It is the dividing line between one of the seven natural wonders of the world, and a major city of casinos, high-rise hotels, and animatronic movie monsters.

Queen Victoria Park with the Skylon Tower in the distance.

Since the attraction boom of the Clifton Hill and Fallsview districts beginning in the 1950's, there have long been people who have criticized amusement attractions being located in the city.  Now, more than ever, there seems to be constant calls from disgruntled members of the public on social media that the city's attractions should be "bulldozed" or "leveled".  Those who cannot see the artistry that goes into a good attraction, the locals who have built them, or the joy they inspire, use the history of The Falls as justification for why they view these attractions as tacky or corporate, when in reality, there is nowhere on Earth like this city.  As I've said many times, there are countless ways to make money as a business in a tourist area like this, and countless ways that would make a lot more money than a wax museum or a miniature golf course, but in the amusement industry, you are offering a service that brings joy.  That is something extremely special and deeply human that cannot be denied, and something that does, very much, deserve to exist near a place where humans have been drawn to for millennia.  But then there's the city's other, more recent problem.  The "Vegas-ification" that's been threatening the identity of the city since the aforementioned shift in consumer trends.  

Las Vegas moved away from its notorious mob roots in the late 80s, trying to implement more family operations like arcades, amusement parks, themed restaurants, animatronic shows and rides. But it failed, and was all gone by the early 2000s. Why? Because the public themselves didn't want it. Customers wanted mob Vegas. They wanted strip clubs, gambling, and "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas".  This has only gotten worse recently, as Vegas is no longer the weekend getaway for the average American that it even was back in the 80's, instead now being an ultra-expensive, luxury destination for high rollers, influencers, and dubiously funded mega-projects.  Unfortunately, this has also become a very real threat to Niagara Falls lately, and I can think of no better example of that threat than an observation wheel literally modelled after the High Roller wheel in Vegas, being placed in a former designated greenspace on the exact spot where the original indigenous Canadian people once showed Europeans the beauty of the The Falls almost 400 years ago.  

The 167m tall Las Vegas High Roller, which holds 40 people per car.

This greenspace is what keeps the corporate casino and high-rise hotel world away from land this culturally significant, and it's preservation is also what gives amusement attractions like those on Clifton Hill the right to exist just a few meters away.  Here, the noise of the slot machines is far too distant to hear, the hum of ride motors fades away to the roar of the Falls, you can smell the flowers, and hear the birds signing.  This is what we stand to lose.  And what's worse, that land would be leased out to the private sector to develop and operate the wheel, so ticket sales wouldn't even directly go back into Niagara Parks, the city, or even the province.  Ford has explicitly said his reasoning for constructing this wheel would be to attract "Vegas-style" resorts and major casino brands to The Falls to replace it's current offerings.  Are we really "Building Ontario" by inviting multi-billion dollar American and global corporations in to replace one of the most unique cities on Earth, or are we replacing Ontario?  

This is where HOCO has come to the rescue, sort of.  Ford's new wheel would be nearly three times the height of the Skywheel, meaning it would likely dwarf it even though the Skywheel sits on top of the Hill, which wouldn't be a good look for HOCO.  In fact, it would render the Skywheel completely obsolete, as the new wheel's planned location would quite literally block the view of The Falls from the Skywheel and many of the existing hotels, no doubt a pre-meditated dig by Ford to render existing attractions obsolete and further his more lucrative replacement ideology.  In response, HOCO has proposed tearing down the Skywheel to build a new, taller wheel.  This would render Ford's wheel effectively pointless, and hopefully put an end to the development.  

It's currently not clear where exactly HOCO's new wheel would be built.  If it actually physically replaced the Skywheel in the same spot, a wheel of that size would likely require modifications to several of the attractions immediately surrounding it as well.  It's likely that a portion of the Dinosaur Adventure Golf course would need to be re-routed should the new wheel sit in the same spot.  Otherwise, the building housing Wizard's Golf, the Upper Canada Trading Co., and Gizmos Wax Hands would likely need to be demolished to build a massive que/base area for the wheel.  As mentioned before however, HOCO's land runs all the way from Clifton Hill to the Skylon Tower, and this might be where the hope for the future comes in.  

By the time the recession had cooled off in the mid 2010's, public interests and consumer trends had changed dramatically.  This was before the trend of retro nostalgia, which perfectly serves the Midway and the cancelled amusement park, had come full circle, and HOCO completely abandoned the rest of their plan after the Skywheel was built.  Choosing a different design firm named IDS to head redevelopments going forward, the current Dinosaur Adventure Golf eventually replaced Quality Inn, repurposing several figures from the original Dinosaur Park Miniature Golf, which was removed.  A few years later in 2015, Comfort Inn was demolished.  The pandemic seemed to be the nail in the coffin for the amusement park/hotel idea.  A brief idea was floated by IDS to build a luxury megamall instead of the hotel element, but that thankfully never materialized.  

Plans for the never-constructed indoor/outdoor waterpark hotel.

More developments did eventually come, such as the Niagara Speedway go-kart track and a few screen-based simulator rides replacing Comfort Inn, but nothing close to the promised amusement park and waterpark hotel.  Instead, a massive pay parking lot was built on the land originally designated for a portion of the hotel and amusement park.  It unfortunately probably makes more money than anything else HOCO operates, and is sadly a perfect example of one the more lucrative ways to make money than an amusement attraction that I mentioned earlier needs to be avoided in this city.  HOCO will design this wheel and the area around it in the way they see fit, however the question is will this too be in a corporate Vegas-style not unlike what Ford is also pushing, or will they tastefully integrate it into the local area?  If it's the former, then it is truly the end of an era for Clifton Hill as it's existed, as the Skywheel's removal for such a development would truly mark the end of the Y2K Clifton Hill era that never even got to be fully realized.  I have high hopes however, that this will not be the case.  Despite some more recent developments such as the screen-based simulator rides and the parking lot feeling a little rushed and honestly, cheap, HOCO has generally done a good job in recent years at preserving it's brand identity. See some of this Spring's updates to their side of the Hill as an example.

If they want to give this wheel the space it needs, the land originally designated for the waterpark hotel, is still empty.  I have no hopes of them replacing even a portion of the parking lot with an amusement park anytime soon, but at least the plan could maybe still see the light of day, or at least a version of it.  Dinosaur Park is gone, but the larger and arguably much more immersive Dinosaur Adventure Golf has retained it's spirit.  Comfort Inn is also gone, which despite being beautiful, likely wouldn't have held on much longer anyway even if the original plans had been retained, being a motor hotel built in 1956 with no elevators.  Now that HOCO has been out of the hospitality industry for over 10 years since Comfort Inn's closure, I can't see them ever opting to build the waterpark hotel due to the massive operating costs and logistics of such a development.  I think finally constructing the amusement park however, with the new wheel as it's centerpiece, would be a fantastic way to finally see this plan through in some sense.  It would "Build Ontario" in a continuation of the local character of the Clifton Hill district, not Vegas casinos.  It would also integrate extremely well with their pre-existing attractions such as the Midway, Dinosaur Adventure Golf, the Speedway, and yes, even the parking lot.  I would just hope they give this new wheel the same name and starburst light pattern, as it's truly become an iconic sight on the Niagara skyline, and itself harkens back to the old Maple Leaf Village Amusement Park wheel that ran from the 1970's-1990's.

The Skywheel's iconic starburst pattern glows on the skyline just before sunrise. Image credit: HOCO

We'll see if either of these wheels ever come to fruition.  The public outrage over Ford's proposal seems to have quickly fizzled out the project's momentum, and HOCO may have no reason to replace the Skywheel if there's no competition after all. I have long said that the tourism industry in The Falls has stood at a crossroads since the pandemic, to either go in a direction in the style of what Ford now wants (and is unfortunately actively pushing/funding) or evolve on what it's always been.  Things like the upcoming and sudden opening of the massive McDonald's on Victoria Ave. at the top of the Hill certainly doesn't paint a bright picture, however this wheel debate may be the catalyst that finally pushes The Falls towards one path or the other at that crossroads.  So the question remains, will The Falls be a place where taxpayer money is spent to give American casino companies a cheaper Trojan horse into the country, or will it remain a unique city built and defined by the hard work, hospitality, resilience, and cultural/historical respect of its locals?