Las Vegas Approves a Heart-Shaped Casino Resort for the Failed SkyVue “Ferris Wheel” Site

One of the Las Vegas Strip’s most notorious eyesores may finally get a second life — in the shape of a giant heart. Clark County commissioners have unanimously approved plans for a 752-room, 29-story hotel-casino on the long-vacant SkyVue site across from Mandalay Bay, where two unfinished concrete columns from a doomed observation-wheel project have stood for more than a decade. The design leans into that history rather than erasing it. Here is a research-backed look at the plan, the site’s troubled past, and the healthy dose of skepticism it’s drawing.

What Was Approved

At a zoning meeting on Wednesday, Clark County commissioners unanimously approved the waivers and use permits for the project. Developer Eli Applebaum, through his firm Kulik River Capital, plans a 29-story tower on nearly 12 acres along Las Vegas Boulevard in Paradise, Nevada — east of the Strip between Mandalay Bay Road and Four Seasons Drive, directly across from Mandalay Bay. The signature feature is a heart-shaped glass curtain wall on the central section of the tower, wrapped in a full-height LED display. Beyond the 752 rooms, plans call for a casino floor, restaurants, retail, a swimming pool and entertainment facilities, more than 42,000 square feet of convention space, a six-story parking garage, and a covered pedestrian plaza that planners compared to downtown’s Fremont Street Experience.

Turning “The Pillars of Sadness” Into a Sky Restaurant

The most inventive part of the plan is what it does with the ruins. Two concrete support columns were built in 2012 for a planned observation wheel that never came to be — remnants a project representative affectionately called “two matchsticks,” and which locals have long dubbed “the pillars of sadness.” Rather than demolish them, the developers intend to reinforce the columns, add a third supporting pillar, and use them to anchor a “sky venue” restaurant suspended roughly 265 feet above the property. Project representative Nancy Amundsen said she had discussed the site multiple times with MGM Resorts International, whose Mandalay Bay sits across the boulevard, and that MGM wanted to see either redevelopment or removal of the unfinished structures. The redesign, she said, would “hopefully make it look a little nicer” than the current state.

The Project at a Glance

Shrunk to Satisfy the FAA

The tower got shorter on its way to approval. Applebaum originally proposed an 874-room resort, but the design was revised after aviation considerations — the site sits near McCarran/Harry Reid airport flight paths — required a lower profile. Amundsen told commissioners the building was reduced by roughly 60 feet to obtain Federal Aviation Administration approval, which she confirmed has now been secured. The revised 752-room, 29-story plan reflects that height cut.

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A Decade-Plus of Failure on the Site

The redevelopment would close a long, sorry chapter. Developer Howard Bulloch originally pursued the SkyVue Las Vegas Super Wheel as the centerpiece of a larger, London-themed entertainment complex, announcing in 2011 that the project was “about to get off the ground.” Construction began, and in 2012 the team said the first phase was complete — but work stopped after only the two support columns were erected, and the roughly 500-foot wheel never rose. Bulloch controlled about 38.5 acres on the south Strip and by 2015 was marketing it at more than $10 million per acre (which would have valued it above $385 million); it didn’t sell, and he later said it had been “in escrow numerous times” with buyers unable to arrange financing. The property entered a bankruptcy auction in 2020, where Seattle-area businessman Wayne Perry — who had sunk tens of millions into the project — acquired it via a $75 million credit bid approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Gary Spraker. Perry’s family later sold about eight acres to the Clark County Department of Aviation for $16.2 million in 2023, and sold the current development parcel to Applebaum this spring.

A Healthy Dose of Skepticism

Not everyone is convinced it will get built — and that caveat belongs in any honest account. Local commentators have noted that Kulik River Capital is a low-profile private real-estate holding company rather than an established casino operator, and that there’s little public track record of the developer completing anything approaching the scale and complexity of a Strip resort. Las Vegas has seen many splashy renderings for this exact parcel evaporate over the years. Zoning approval is a real and necessary milestone, but it is a long way from financing, construction, and a gaming license — so the heart-shaped tower remains, for now, an approved concept rather than a sure thing.

Why It Matters

For the south Strip, the vote turns one of the corridor’s most conspicuous dead zones from eyesore into at least a live development prospect, potentially adding 752 rooms in a high-traffic stretch opposite Mandalay Bay after years of zero activity. For Las Vegas watchers, the design is a characteristically bold bet — quite literally wearing its heart on the skyline — that a distinctive silhouette and a rebuilt “sky” restaurant can finally succeed where a Ferris wheel could not. Whether it rises or joins the long list of SkyVue might-have-beens will depend on what comes after the zoning vote.

Sources and Further Reading

World Casino News – “Heart-Shaped Casino Resort Approved for Las Vegas’ Failed SkyVue Wheel Site” (reference article)

Las Vegas Review-Journal – “New hotel-casino project approved for Las Vegas’ failed Ferris-wheel site” (land history; FAA detail)

Casino.org / GGB Magazine / Casino.com – design, dimensions, and approval specifics

Coyote Country / KKLZ / Bettors Insider – site location, columns, and Bulloch background

Vital Vegas (Casino.org) – skeptical perspective on the developer and the project’s odds of completion

Note: Details reflect reporting from July 2026; the project has zoning approval but had not begun construction at the time of writing, and figures are attributed above. This article is for informational purposes only.