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America’s craziest shopping mall finally opens after 20 years
https://www.ft.com/content/e58eb93e-...4?desktop=true

Everyone involved in creating this monstrosity deserves to lose all of their money.

a mall with nowhere to shop or eat yet lol

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This whole thing seems like something from 1995. What a waste.

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Originally Posted by 10023 (Post 8729210)

The market exists, the mall never died, it just evolved. This company is just pouncing on an opportunity for a funner, more stimulating mall for the next generation, and can you blame them for wanting to make a buck? This is America, the land of opportunity.

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Originally Posted by photoLith (Post 8732217)

This whole thing seems like something from 1995. What a waste.

No, it looks like 2019. America is still a mall going country,It's where the term mall rat came from. That never died, despite hype that murica was going back to its roots and people going downtown again to shop.

Well it may be impressive, but it certainly is vulgar.

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Originally Posted by aquablue (Post 8745913)

it won't be long before malls make a comeback.

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Originally Posted by theraofnothingless (Post 8748829)

it won't be long before malls make a comeback.

Cite your sources?

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Originally Posted by C. (Post 8723342)

New Yorkers don't like coming to New Jersey.

Giants and Jets fans seem to make it well enough.

https://www.nj.com/bergen/2019/11/pa...-how-long.html

We complained about parking at American dream and it’s free, at least for now

Nov 13, 2019

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On its website under the topic of parking there is a banner on the page that says, in all capital letters with the last word bolded, “Parking is Free.”

“(The mall) has huge potential if it can be done right ," Murphy told the show’s host, Eric Landskroner. "I agree with you. It’s got to be affordable and accessible.”

A spokesperson for American Dream did not respond to questions from NJ Advance Media about how long parking would be free and why the policy change was made.

They simply said what we already knew, “Parking rates at American Dream have not been enforced, outside of game/event days, and parking has been free since opening.”

American Dream originally said it would start charging for parking on Oct. 28 -- the Monday after opening weekend. But when Monday came, electricians were still wiring the equipment that would dispense the tickets and raise and lower the gate to let drivers in and out of the garages.

The installation of the parking equipment was completed in time for the first home football game, Nov. 4, when the NY Giants took on the Dallas Cowboys. People who wanted to visit American Dream the day of the game were relegated to the B/C lot where they were charged $30 to park. They could have their parking ticket validated if they visited Nickelodeon Universe, the theme park inside American Dream.

The event rate parking still stands at American Dream anytime there is something going on at MetLife Stadium. On days that there are NFL games, parking is $30 without a prepaid Giants parking pass and $45 without a prepaid Jets parking pass. The rates are in effect 5 hours prior to the start of the game and remain in effect until 1 hour after kick-off.

American Dream will also charge $10 for valet parking.

But if you go on a day when nothing is happening at the stadium -- and you park your own car -- you can park for free at American Dream.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/1037...merican-dream/

Huge New York City-themed aquarium is opening in new US mega attraction

https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/...4511.jpg?w=620

Kara Godfrey
19 Nov 2019

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SEA LIFE Aquarium will open at the recently opened American Dream mall.

It will feature 250,000 gallons of water with over 3,000 animals including octopus, fish and zebra sharks.

The tanks, however, won't be normal tanks - they will be themed on famous New York landmarks.

Guests will walk through "Rush Hour of the Ocean" when exploring the attraction, with subway adverts and yellow eels mimicking the iconic New York taxis.

An underwater tunnel called "Sharks Fish Avenue" will feature destinations such as Times Square surrounded by the fish and sharks - as well as "storefront windows" showing the animals.

Julie Estrada, Head of Public Relations for Merlin, explained its purpose was learning about animal conservation.

For example, kids can learn how fish swim in schools by watching the yellow eel 'taxi cabs'.

Other exhibits will include piranhas at "Wall Street Wolves" and seahorses at "Ballet Dancers of the Ocean".

"City's Freshwater" will show fish that are common in the Hudson River.

The aquarium will open in the New Jersey's new American Dream attraction, just seven miles from New York City.

Opening earlier this year, inside is a "mega mall" featuring 450 shops, a theme park and water park.

It is spread over three million square foot of land - or around 47 football pitches.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/...trip=all&w=960

https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/...trip=all&w=960

https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/...trip=all&w=960

https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/...trip=all&w=960

Quote:

Originally Posted by theraofnothingless (Post 8748829)

it won't be long before malls make a comeback.

Mall never died.

Any early reports if patronage at the mall is exceeding, meeting, or failing to meet expectations?

I live in NYC and frankly didn't even know the thing had opened, haven't seen any advertising and only remember it from on here, years ago when it was called Xanadu. If they're expecting anyone from the city to come, they might want to let us know it exists.

Google just told me it has 33,000 parking spaces, holy crap!!! But I guess that's for the stadiums too.

I like the idea of indoor skiing, but I'm betting the reality isn't all that pleasant, especially when we aren't too far from some acceptable downhill slopes. Seems kind of weird they built that in an area that is hilly and gets snow, Dubai, I get it.

Has anybody been, let's hear your impressions...

Big SNOW Opens at American Dream, the First Real Snow Indoor Ski Resort in North America

https://28nwgk2wx3p52fe6o9419sg5-wpe...new-jersey.jpg

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Fresh off the heels of American Dream’s phase one opening earlier this fall, the ambitious mega-mall recently opened phase three with their latest attraction, Big SNOW – the first and only indoor, real-snow, year-round ski and snow resort in North America.

Big SNOW welcomed its first guest on December 5th, offering indoor skiing, snowboarding, sledding, and other snow activities inside a fully enclosed 180,000 square feet structure featuring a 200-foot-wide 16-story high ski slope.

“Big SNOW is a game-changer for skiing and snowboarding in the United States,” Hugh Reynolds, vice president of marketing and sales for Snow Operating, said in a statement. “The unprecedented access to year-round snow combined with the center’s unrivaled location … will allow us to provide opportunities never before seen, and to move the needle on growing the sports in a big way.”

The interior temperature is held at a constant 28 degrees creating the ideal environment to make and maintain real snow indoors. The total skiable area is equal to roughly four acres. The slope features four ski lifts and has a capacity of 500. On the technical side, the facility has the capacity to produce real snow at a rate of 4.4 tons per hour.

Big SNOW is run by Montville-based SNOW Operating which operates a number of outdoor ski resorts across the US, Australia, and China.

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Jersey Digs

SNA Displays Selected to Provide LED Technology for American Dream Project

https://s13.therealdeal.com/trd/up/2...12-650x390.jpg

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SNA Displays has been selected as the primary LED display provider for American Dream Meadowlands, the biggest mall in the United States and one of the largest indoor/outdoor retail and entertainment venues in the world.

Located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, American Dream will feature a number of attractions including more than 500 retail stores and restaurants, an ice-skating rink, DreamWorks Water Park, a large movie theater, Big SNOW America—first indoor ski slope in the U.S., an indoor climbing center, SEA LIFE® Aquarium, LEGOLAND® Discovery Center, and a Nickelodeon Universe® theme park.

The massive site is spread out over three million square feet, and some venues are already open for business.

SNA Displays will supply more than 40,000 square feet of LED display technology throughout the American Dream campus and will continue rolling out dozens of indoor and outdoor digital displays into the Spring of 2020.

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TRD

This project makes me sad every time I think about it...

As a resident of YEG, which of course invented the modern megamall with WEM who also own this project, I hope eventually this becomes an attraction of sorts even from a modern #latestagecapitalism perspective..

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Originally Posted by canucklehead2 (Post 8793237)

The Mall itself won't be fully until sometime in the spring (so they say), but Big Snow, Nickelodeon them park is open. The waterpark was supposed to be open.

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Just as it opens, COVID-19 delays the American Dream. This site is cursed.

I drove by the mall this morning. As empty as a Chernobyl village.

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Originally Posted by chris08876 (Post 8987897)

I drove by the mall this morning. As empty as a Chernobyl village.

I'm ashamed to admit that I literally spat out my drink when I read the second sentence. :P

Ouch. lol.

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Partially Reopened American Dream Mall Awaits Full Completion In East Rutherford, New Jersey

https://newyorkyimby.com/wp-content/...5646192753.jpg

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This Turkey Week, YIMBY is taking a look at some of the most prominent projects in the New York City area that have either started and stopped, or stalled altogether. We begin with the American Dream Mall, a project with a notoriously rocky history that is finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

Though still only partially realized, the American Dream Mall reopened last month after a nearly six-month-long temporary closure. Located at 1 American Dream Way in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the gargantuan 3.3-million-square-foot retail and entertainment destination is the second-largest shopping mall in the United States and is owned and operated by Triple Five Group, which also owns Minnesota’s Mall of America, the country’s largest-such facility. The project is designed by GH+A and Adamson Associates, and initially opened its doors to the public on October 25, 2019, some 15 years after the initial groundbreaking.

Below are several of the indoor renderings produced by Adamson Associates.

When construction began in 2004, the mall was originally called Xanadu Meadowlands. The project was owned by Mills Corporation until its bankruptcy in 2007. Colony Capital purchased the development in 2009, but by then, work had halted due to the compounding effects of the 2008 financial crisis and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. In 2013, Triple Five Group stepped in and gained control of the project, pushing it along over the past seven years.

Though shopping malls have significantly fallen out of favor compared to the time when the development began, the American Dream aims to overcome this with high-profile attractions to lure visitors across the Hudson River from the city. The most notable of these are Big Snow, the first indoor skiing facility in North America, and Nickelodeon Universe, a theme park with two indoor rollercoasters. Additional big draws for the complex will be the forthcoming DreamWorks Water Park, Sea Life Aquarium, and the Legoland Discovery Center.

An article from Forbes pointed out that recent foot traffic recorded by Placer.ai at American Dream has exceeded figures from January and February of this year, an encouraging sign for the beleaguered project. A recent in-person job fair featured 30 tenants seeking full-time, part-time, and seasonal workers, and the mall is planning to open a total of 300 stores.

It’s unclear when work will be fully complete on the American Dream.

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NYY

Looks too fancy for the US. Looks like something out of Dubai or Kuwait.

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Originally Posted by kingsdl76 (Post 9442885)

Looks too fancy for the US. Looks like something out of Dubai or Kuwait.

I'm waiting for the mall to die, but it's proven resilient as the high end stores are still open. Maybe they're just waiting for their leases to run out?

This place is packed. I took my son to the Nickelodeon theme park, and he had a blast.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingsdl76 (Post 9442885)

Looks too fancy for the US. Looks like something out of Dubai or Kuwait.

Is that supposed to be criticism or what? Also, no lol.

Well, looks like I was wrong about this one. I thought no one would go.

They only have 800 bucks in the bank? WTF?

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That doesnt really mean anything. They have an enormous amount of collateral. Most banks would grant a line of credit if it came to that.

Funny comment from YouTube

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Me and my guys poured lots of concrete there, I called this before it opened. People use amazon and online now, malls have been closing everywhere previously. This was a horrible idea from the beginning. At least blue collar folk such as myself made a living off the project during construction. Heck, they’ll have to pay guys like us to tear it down too.

A pretty stupid comment. High end retail and other "experiences" like food and entertainment will always have a brick and mortar presence. This project has been hit on all sides since the shovel hit the dirt. Aside from the fact I personally think it's a stupid location to build a high end destination shopping and entertainment supermall, I think things will level out and look brighter once we fully come out of the pandemic and all the other economic disturbances. I hope that is sooner than later.

I think the experiences part of it may work. Indoor ski park and all.

I just never understood the retail component in general. It's like that silly Woodberry Commons bus that preys on tourists. It leaves the PABT to some distant ass suburb. If you're in Manhattan with everything at your fingertips, why the hell are you getting on a bus to go an hour out of town to shop at a suburban mall not unlike the one that already exists in the shitty suburb they're visiting from. The exact same products and selection, if not better, can be found without ever leaving Manhattan.

Absolutely incredible to me that anyone wood use this service, but yet there it is. I view the American Dream retail the same way. I'm a free market guy so there is obviously demand and profits are being made. I just don't understand why people do it.