The Christie administration is working to secure a billion-dollar deal to revive the embattled Xanadu development in the Meadowlands with an eye on opening its beleaguered doors by fall 2013.
With $1.9B already spent and the relentless criticism dogging the project, the New York Times reports today that the governor has struck a deal with the Canadian developers of the Mall of America in Minnesota — Triple Five — to funnel $1B to complete the shopping and entertainment complex, which would be rennamed Dream@Meadowlands.
The deal apparently includes a new “skin” on its exterior, which appears to be paying the price for its seat along the New Jersey Turnpike and the air pollution that comes with it.
The Record reports that the first stage of the development would be slated to open by fall 2013.
The Times says an indoor water park, skating rink and, yes, the ski ramp are part of the revival. Christie will chip in up to $200M in low-interest financing, reports the paper.
At least it’s a company that has had success running these types of malls.
The name of this rebranded disaster is American Dream @ Meadowlands.
Really. 200M for this mess? I thought the state was sort of having hard money times?
No money for a tunnel…but there is money to bailout a hospital in Passaic, money to give Panasonic the go to move to Newark…and now there’s money for this endeavor! Gosh, isn’t that just amazing…
Rumor had it that the Superbowl in 2014 was contingent upon Xanadu opening. NYC will get the majority of the tourist dollars spent, not New Jersey — and this mall will be the last place any tourism dollars are spent.
What will happen to Xanadu: IF it opens, you’ll get a clog of people to check out the new novelty — and then that’ll be it. After that, it’ll be a white elephant nobody shops in.
100M to bail out a hospital a few years back, 100M+ to give Panasonic the go ahead to move 10 miles down the road and 200M for this cockamamie endeavor.
Did anybody hear the state was sort of having tough money problems? That’s what I heard. Funny how there’s money for a mall bailout, too.
Where are they planning on expanding it? The footprint is a bare 100 feet from Route 120.
Nobody’s got anything to say about this thing?
This mall will benefit nobody.
It will siphon jobs and sales away from every mall within an hour’s drive. That’s what happened when GSP opened; sales at the 2 major dept. stores in Paterson vanished. The stores eventually closed.
This will be an environmental, financial and traffic nightmare. Route 3 was not built for this kind of traffic; neither was Route 120, or Route 17.
And as per the Record, it will cost 3.7 billion dollars to finish this mess. Gee, that’s all coming out of Triple 5′s pocket? Guess again.
We will get the lion’s share of the noise and the traffic that comes through town. Let’s hope this thing never opens. IT seems to be the ace of spades for whoever steps up to the plate and wants to take ownership of this mess.
And don’t tell us that this thing will create lots of jobs. Big deal — mostly part time jobs in retail or service; try to support yourself on that money, let alone support yourself and dependents.
And not every single retail space in this complex will be filled. Not likely; how many stores can you put inside a 6 story building???
They also have plans on putting amusements and rides onto this site. That’ll also siphon business away from Six Flags. This mall will benefit NOBODY.
This will be the first mall that you will hit once you leave NYC. So what do you think will happen to the rest of the malls in this area? Siphoned business and dollars.
This is a bright idea to build a mall? How many have we got within an hour’s drive? Newport Centre, Willowbrook, GSP, P Park, Bergen Mall, Fashion Center, Short Hills, Riverside Square, Staten Island Mall, Woodbridge Mall (which may close), Mommouth Mall, Palisades Center and Rockaway Mall. That is over one dozen malls. Why do we need ONE MORE????
Wait… Aren’t we broke? Aren’t jobs being crunched to nothing in NJ thanks to C.C.? Teachers, fire fighters, police, ems all taking cuts? We have money for this? Did I read 60K people a day needed there to spend, to keep this going daily? With times getting worse and no miracles to solve are already severe economy. Could you put that money into buying some food or something in the future for us? FYI people don’t have money to spend freely anymore.
Bobebullstopper: SURE we have money for this! There is a dedicated money tree for incentives to great big fat companies who don’t need the money at all.
The construction unions are pushing hard for this project. Whining that so many of them lost jobs and they need the American Dream expansion project blah blah etcetera….
Big newsflash, guys:
Unemployment in this country and in this state and county are off the hook! t
And the jobs at American Dream will be a TEMPORARY FIX! These are NOT permanent jobs not by a long shot.
Put the money into job retraining, job funding and take that horrible building and use it for a good cause: I suggested classroom space that can be leased by community colleges and universities. Or use part of the building for a specialized high school where you can get training for an honest to good ness trade that cannot be outsourced or offshored.
To hell with American Dream. That’s the bottom line.
Not to mention that no mall is 100% capacity. There’s always a vacant store or 2 even at Willowbrook or GSP.
What will happen if this thing opens:
It will be a novelty for a period of time, maybe 6 months, maybe a year (and that’s to stretch things a bit) and after that, the visitors will drop off. It will become a ghost town and a white elephant nobody will shop at.
All that will be left is an ecological and environmental footprint and a great big financial failure footprint; as I mentioned, this is over kill. Build another mall when there are many within a half hour’s drive??? How crazy is this? How the heck can a business model like this even make the grade and survive?
I still want to know how permission was given to build this thing right next to protected wetlands. there had to be a vote for a gas station to open on MalMart’s campus — and the vote did not go through. How did a mall get built, all without some type of vote regarding the fact it is right next to protected wetlands???
The so-called “American Dream” is built on mostly on the state’s public wetlands! I don’t know how this was even approved or if it will be structurally sound over time? They want to even increase the size to include even more wetlands? Christie approved more state funding for this and wants to give them other tax breaks! He has no problems giving these rich developers state tax dollars! It may create some jobs, but it will also kill others. It is a traffic problem for the already heavily congested route 3 and will also hurt the Secaucus retailers and outlets if it ever opens? I think they want to have this done before the Super Bowl that will be in the new unneeded Meadowlands Stadium (Met Life Stadium) in 2014. This stadium was all about luxury boxes and serving the elite corporate crowd. They could have easily updated the not so old stadium with a tiny fraction of 1.6 billion they spent for this new stadium. The KC Chiefs still play in arrowhead which was built at the same time and by the same group.
I cannot tell you how much I detest that thing.
It ruined our view of the Meadowlands — ugh — a pristine and awesome view of the river…and then there’s that THING to blight the entire scene.
Nobody will be shopping at that thing for Superbowl. New York will get the lion’s share of the windfall from that week/weekend. The only thing we’re going to get are full hotels and congestion, congestion, congestion. Not one dime of the profit from that game will go into our pockets.
Again: to hell with American Dream.
A Maple: In July, it was reported that the parking lot is sinking and that the entire inside of the structure is kaput. All of the hardware is rusting or out of service and needs to be replaced.
And in the winter, the snow dome was dented, due to an accumulation of ice and snow.
Didn’t anybody check the campus periodically to make sure all was okay? Evidently not — I guess when the project was suspended nearly 2 years ago, it was Lock Up and Go…. and nobody has been by since to see what’s going on on either the inside or the outside.
The builders and people who were in charge admitted they were in a hurry to finish the project and hence, the sinking. Are they kidding or what???
If i recall correctly, I remember hearing that there was problems with the old Giants Stadium parking lot — same thing — problems with footing it and the lot had problems. Why shouldn’t it??? For fudge sakes it is a SWAMP AND WETLANDS!!!! Sure it’s going to sink unless the land is remediated, am I correct?
Its just me, you are a moron. Do you even live around here? Have you been to Mall of America and the amount of money that flows through there every day? I have you idiot and while I agree with the remake of the outside, this place will kill it – and hopefully close down some of the shitty malls you mentioned.
@the King:
This will not be a mall that the middle class and working people will shop in.
These will be upscale stores.
Translated: out of the reach of our pocketbooks.
Why am I a moron?
The Mall of America is in Minnesota. This is ideal for them: this is where everybody goes when it’s winter and it’s inhumane to be outdoors. They have nowhere to go when it’s winter; they need something to do.
And malls are no longer being built. The trend is now toward those “lifestyle centers” where people do not shop in a cave. What replaced Mill Creek Mall Is an example of what the new trend is.
Public money went into this mess. The developers who went broke should be made to give back every penny of what was invested in public money, plus interest.
And no mall is filled to capacity. There will always be retail space that isn’t filled: there is no guarantee that the entire scope of retail space will be filled in this one, either.
As I said, this thing will be a novelty when it first opens. It’s going to be like a brand new toy at Christmas — when the novelty wears off, that will be the end of any revenue generated by shoppers. It’ll be a white elephant and a drain on the environment.