American Dream Or Eyesore?

It’s taken almost 10 years, but at long last the giant shopping mall at New Jersey’s Meadowlands may finally be nearing the beginning of the end of construction. 

Unfortunately, it still won’t be done in time for the 2014 Super Bowl at adjacent MetLife Stadium  although N.J. Gov. Chris Christie predicted its latest new owners, Mall of America’s TripleFive, could finally begin work on the project after acquiring it nearly three years ago.  The complex’s shell has been offending New Jersey commuters, who are already used to a lot, for years.

Once upon a time, the project was known as “Xanadu” and was to be the centerpiece of a massive sports, entertainment, shopping and business hub. A decade later, the stadium is finished but Xanadu is ancient history – replaced by an eyesore of a construction zone of a megamall now called “American Dream.”

 “Let’s pause to appreciate the depth of its ugliness,” the Star-Ledger’s editorial board wrote shortly after Christie predicted that work on the project would start “within weeks.”

The project was taken over by TripleFive in 2010, and even its own spokesman told the Newark paper Christie’s timeline is “optimistic.”  

“In a swath of North Jersey dotted with strip malls and chemical plants, this overhyped shell of a shopping mall is a high-volume offense to the eyes,” the Star-Ledger said. “Its mess of clashing colors and textures is made more shocking by its mass.

“The overlapping vertical stripes and horizontal blocks have been compared to LEGOs, shipping containers or bar codes.  A red-and-orange test pattern, jockeying for attention with a giant blue spreadsheet.”

When (or if) completed, American Dream is expected to include hundreds of shops and restaurants, indoor skydiving and skiing attractions, and the tallest Ferris wheel in the land. Triple Five has promised a makeover, according to the Times-Ledger.

But first, the company must settle up with the previous owner’s banks so it can get control of the property then work out disputes with two other Meadowlands tenants: the NFL’s New York Giants and Jets.