Head over to American Dream in East Rutherford on a Saturday and you’ll see a packed mall. Guests on indoor roller coasters or indoor waterslides, or zipping down the indoor ski slope. Or shopping or dining at one of the hundreds of offerings at the venue.

Yet mall officials have argued that American Dream — a sprawling $5 billion entertainment and retail destination in the Meadowlands financed by about $1 billion in state and local subsidies — isn’t fully opened.

And because of that, they say they aren’t on the hook for millions of dollars in negotiated payments to local towns, at least until the mall is 100% occupied…

“Economic conditions change. Your expectations have to change,” said Marc Pfeiffer, associate director of the Bloustein Local Government Research Center at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. “They wouldn’t be able to cut that same type of deal today.”

Pfeiffer said that the parties involved — American Dream, the NJSEA and the Meadowlands towns — may be able to resort to some type of mediation or arbitration rather than a lengthy court battle. Many of those are handled by retired judges in the state, Pfeiffer said.

“They are far better off attempting to mediate a solution and if that doesn’t work, to agree to a final arbitration,” Pfeiffer said. “It could be a lower amount. It could be a staggered amount based on a verifiable metric.”

NorthJersey.com, August 7, 2024