[NYguy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/10/ny...soon.html?_r=0

Work Is to Begin Soon on a Failed Meadowlands Mall






By CHARLES V. BAGLI
June 9, 2013

The empty shell of the enormous retail and entertainment complex in the New Jersey Meadowlands, formerly known as Xanadu, has served as a daily reminder of how outsize ambitions made it one of the most notorious examples of the real estate collapse. Now, a new developer says the former Xanadu project is about to become a testament to the rebounding market.

Triple Five Worldwide, the company chosen more than two years ago by Gov. Chris Christie to revive the project, says it plans to resume construction in the coming weeks, more than four years after work stopped.

The company, a conglomerate based in Canada that owns two of the world’s largest malls, plans to spend $1.7 billion, on top of the $1.9 billion spent by two previous developers.

“Our intent is to start shortly,” said Tony Armlin, vice president for development construction at Triple Five. “We’ve never wavered in our intent to move forward. This is a great project.”

The current vision for the project is even bigger than the initial conception that failed so incredibly. It now has approvals to add an exotic glass-domed water park and an amusement park inspired by DreamWorks Animation — in addition to the performing arts center, indoor ski hill, movie theater, 400 shops and more than 50 restaurants already planned for what they call American Dream Meadowlands.

But the hundreds of thousands of drivers who pass the derelict structure during every rush hour might be forgiven for their skepticism. After all, highly publicized starting dates have flown by like exit ramps on the Garden State Parkway with little to show for it.

Most recently Governor Christie, who has promoted the project politically and financially, promised that it would be open by the time the area welcomes visitors to the 2014 Super Bowl, a date the company has acknowledged it will not meet.

That is why Triple Five has pushed to expand the project on an adjoining wetland parcel with an enclosed water park and, in partnership with DreamWorks, an amusement park based on Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and other animated movie characters. “They had omitted one key feature: the amusements necessary to becoming a true tourist destination,” he said.

Triple Five, which is owned by the Ghermezian family, envisions American Dream as a sister complex to the Mall of America in Minnesota and the West Edmonton Mall in Canada.

But the Giants and the Jets want the amusement and water parks closed on game days, arguing that the crowds will wreak havoc. Their lease has what is effectively a veto over any expansion of the original mall. “Our endgame is not to kill the project,” said Mr. Mara of the Giants. “It’s to protect our core business.”

Triple Five contends that highway improvements and mass transit connections surrounding the stadium and the adjacent mall, racetrack and arena will make the impact negligible.