NJ’s American Dream Mall Never Fully Opened, Due to Pandemic

By Benyamin Davidsons

The highly anticipated American Dream Mall in East Rutherford, NJ, located just 5 miles from New York City, has yet to fully open.  The 3.3 million-square-foot center, where construction first began 15 years ago in 2003, had its opening interrupted by the Coronavirus pandemic.

The massive project to transform the former run-of-the-mill Xanadu Meadowlands into the extraordinary American Dream mall, took billions of dollars in funding and numerous developers.  The extensive shopping center proudly features a Nickelodeon theme park, DreamWorks Water Park, an indoor ice skating rink, an indoor ski center, and retail stores galore, becoming the second-largest shopping mall in the United States.

The Triple Five Group, the owner of the project who took it over in 2011, is a Jewish Canadian real estate firm also behind the Mall of America in Minnesota.  “It was extremely, extremely unfortunate, the timing of it all,” Don Ghermezian, chief executive of Triple Five and co-chief executive of American Dream, said in an interview with the NY Times. “The shutdown came in March, only a couple of days before we were planning to open the balance of the center.”

The impressive mall had not expected a shutdown or orders for people to stay home; rather it had anticipated 40 million visitors and tourists annually, which would have put it on the same page as Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fl.  There were 150,000 expected visitors on busy days, with the group already working on efforts to help alleviate traffic to the area.  Hoping to make the mall accessible year-round in NJ weather, the marvelous attractions, however, are mostly all indoors, never dreaming that people would be instructed not to congregate inside.

A portion of the mall had first been opened on October 25, 2019, and the second stage followed on December 5, 2019.  Of course the mall was shuttered for nearly six months along with all others beginning in mid-March, because of the pandemic.  The remaining opening stage occurred two months ago on October 1, 2020.  As of last week, about 90 of the retail stores were open.  Now, with winter rapidly approaching and COVID-19 cases on the rise, there is a chance of another shut down.

Investors and local politicians are worried about the future of American Dream.  The $5 billion development received hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer incentives and had promised millions of dollars back in the form of income and revenue taxes in coming years.  As reported by the NY Times, Mr. Ghermezian expressed optimism, and said that the shopping center lost “very, very few tenants” and that those that left due to the pandemic have been replaced. He added that if it weren’t for the shutdowns, up to 200 of the mall’s retail and food tenants would probably have opened this month.   “We’re going to own American Dream for the next 100, 200 years or whatever it is,” he added.