The cash-depleted America Dream Meadowlands mall project just caught a break and its second wind as Wall Street giants JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs have just completed the sale of $1.1 billion in tax-exempt bonds to help boost the projects completion.
“We are delighted that JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs have completed the full financing for American Dream. The response by the investment community to the bond offering and private financing have been exceptional, both oversubscribed, confirming strong investor confidence in our vision for American Dream. We would like to thank the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and Borough of East Rutherford for their assistance in the bond sale.” –Don Ghermezian, President, Triple Five.
Prior to the bond sale, the mall project’s competition was delayed for years and face tremendous financial woes.
The Meadowlands mall has been under construction since 2003 when The Mills Corp., the developer at the time, announced that it would create the “busiest” mall in the world.
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The project was first named “Xanadu,” but Mills Corp ran into financially problems, the group then handed over the project to Colony Capital, who then saw their mega mall dreams collapse just as quickly as their main backer’s financial future did after the 2008 financial bubble burst.
Colony Capital was backed by the failed investment bank Lehman Brothers.
Enter Triple Five, the Canadian firm tapped by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to complete the job. Christie helped allocate taxpayer dollars to fund the mall.Triple Five renamed the project “American Dream Meadowlands.”-Shark Tank
Because of the venture’s financial problems and construction delays, Triple Five’s American Dream Miami theme park project, which is still in the approval process, suffered from the bad press, and many questioned if it too would face those same problems.