Kyle grew up working in his family’s business founded by his
father, Hal. Currently, Kyle is the Vice
President of their company, Great Western Pacific. Kyle serves as the operations
manager for Pier 57 and the waterfront restaurants and shops located on the Pier. In addition to
Pier 57, the family’s company also owns and operates the Crab Pot and Fisherman’s
Restaurants located in Bellevue, Washington and in Southern California. Kyle spoke at our March luncheon.
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| Seattle's "Big Wheel" owned and operated by Great Western Pacific
Guest blog post by Gordon Hodge '86
The Seattle Great Wheel - Kyle Griffith Class of 2002
For those interested in
entrepreneurship and what makes America great (despite what makes America not
so great…lots of red tape and bureaucracy for businesses interested in change
and growth), we were treated to a captivating presentation by Kyle Griffith
(’02) about his and his father’s (Hal Griffith) quest to develop The Seattle
Great Wheel which now graces Seattle’s Pier 57. In the early 1960’s
Kyle’s dad ran and leased a fish restaurant on the pier. Through some
term in the lease the Griffith family came to own Pier 57. Beginning in
the 1970s Hal Griffith attempted to put a Ferris wheel in a park along the
piers to add an attraction to the area but faced too much red tape. This
was before the now iconic Santa Monica pier Ferris wheel was built so an
opportunity was lost for Seattle for some time.
Roll the clock 30 years forward. With the viaduct construction
work due to temporarily disrupt business along the Seattle waterfront the
Griffiths (this time with Kyle old enough to be an active part of the business)
resurrected their idea of a Ferris wheel but rather than deal with the daunting
red tape that they faced earlier when trying to build it in the waterfront
park, they began exploring the potential for building a wheel on the
pier. Given that the wheel they had in mind was to be the largest on the
West Coast (almost two times the size of Santa Monica’s) and weighs 280,000
pounds this was an engineering undertaking to say the least.
Kyle reviewed through slides the removal of a significant number
of pilings that held up the end of their pier. Many were over 100 years
old and were simply inverted trees. Replacing those pilings were massive
tubes driven to the bedrock with a couple of huge pile drivers that were
designed to minimize disturbance of the marine life around the pier.
These were then filled with more than 550 tons of concrete! The wheel
materials came from various places around the globe including Kansas, Germany
and Switzerland. The wheel itself cost approximately $10 million and the
reconstruction of the pier and related supports made for an all-in cost of
about $30 million. Quite an investment. Completed in the early
summer of 2012, the Seattle Great Wheel rises 175 feet above the pier and
extends 40 feet over the water.
The wheel officially opened on June 29, 2012 in time for one of
the more pleasant Seattle summers in recent times and attendance is on pace to
exceed 1 million in the first year, which is ahead of plan. For a ticket
price of $13 for adults and $8.50 for children, up to 300 passengers in 42
fully enclosed gondolas get three turns of the wheel, which takes 15
minutes. There is even a glass bottom VIP gondola with a $50 ticket
price. In response to a predictable question from our audience, “has
anyone gotten lucky on it yet?” Kyle suspects the Wheel has already several
members of its “mile high” club equivalent. Kyle himself “got lucky” in a
way as he proposed to his bride on the Great Seattle Wheel! Those amongst
us that had ridden the Great Wheel remarked how nice the personnel were and all
enjoyed the experience. Kyle mentioned that many of the employees are
lift operators from local ski areas.
For those that have not had a chance to ride the Great Seattle
Wheel Kyle indicated he would make tickets available at the next Fiji luncheon,
but c’mon guys its only $13 and who knows you might even get lucky!
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