SEPTEMBER 5, 2015, 10:58 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2015, 12:16 AM
BY CHRISTOPHER MAAG, LINDA MOSS AND JOHN BRENNAN
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD
What does it take for a developer to borrow a billion dollars to build a mall in New Jersey?
It takes winning over people like Lyle Fitterer, an investor in Menomonee Falls, Wis., who controls $17.5 billion in other people’s money. He invests only in government bonds, including the type that Triple Five, a Canada-based conglomerate, expects to sell soon to complete American Dream, the long-stalled shopping and entertainment complex in the Meadowlands.
So what does Fitterer think of American Dream? Well, it’s complicated.
Demand for such high-risk, high-profit bonds is stronger now than it was two years ago, when Triple Five first received government support for a bond sale, Fitterer said, but the market remains weak. Whereas the original deal offered only tax-free bonds, the revised proposal includes both taxable and tax-free bonds, a mix that he said will broaden the pool of potential investors.
But because the bonds are not backed by taxpayers in New Jersey or the borough of East Rutherford, where the project sits, Fitterer would avoid losing money on the deal only if American Dream succeeds.
And since few have ever attempted a project quite like American Dream, that makes Fitterer and many of his deep-pocketed peers nervous.
