Tag: meadowlands

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Xanadu Still Nothing More than and Eyesore

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Men Not at Work at Troubled Mall Development

Feb 2, 2017 · by Ilya Marritz

The half-built American Dream mall in New Jersey’s Meadowlands has yet again missed a target date to secure construction financing, raising fresh questions about the developer’s ability to complete the project.

On December 8th, developer Don Ghermezian told WNYC all the money is teed up  — nearly $2.7 billion dollars to complete work on the 90-acre mall near Met Life Stadium. The money is to be raised through tax-free municipal bonds and through private borrowing.

“I anticipate that prior to the Christmas holiday the public will know fully about the commitment on the financing,” Ghermezian said.

But Christmas came and went. Then a company spokesman said early January was more likely. Now it’s February, and there’s still no news of how the Ghermezians’ company, Triple Five, will pay to make a retail and entertainment pleasure dome out of the eyesore on state-owned land next to the New Jersey Turnpike.

https://www.wnyc.org/story/men-not-work-troubled-mall-development/

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American Dream ongoing nightmare

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August 12, 2016

The state can’t scrape up the money to fix the state’s roads and bridges, fully fund its schools or pay for the pensions of retired state workers. But, somehow, it found a way this week to approve an $800 million bond after previously authorizing $350 million in tax breaks for a $3.1 billion megamall in the Meadowlands.

The state’s Local Finance Board, an arm of the state Department of Community Affairs, this week approved the bond for the massive Meadowland America Dream shopping and entertainment complex, known during a previous incarnation as Xanadu. After two false starts attributable to the project’s inability to get private financing, the project was taken over in 2011 by Triple Five, a Canadian firm, nearly a decade after it was first approved.

Last week’s approval by the Local Finance Board, and the approval of a financing agreement a day earlier by the mall’s landlord, the N.J. Sports & Exposition Authority, came unaccompanied by any outrage from state lawmakers other than Michael Doherty, R-Warren.

Why the silence? Perhaps legislators didn’t want to call further attention to the irony of their providing bonding for a private venture at a time they can’t scrape up enough money for the state’s basic needs, despite having the highest property taxes in the nation.

https://www.app.com/story/opinion/editorials/2016/08/12/american-dream-meadowlands-bond/88634812/

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Sweeney, Lawmakers Push Casinos and Jersey Unity in the Meadowlands

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A coalition of New Jersey legislators gathered in front of the offices of the Meadowlands Chamber of Commerce to highlight what they feel is a necessary expansion of casino gaming away from only Atlantic City and into North Jersey. At the event Democrats Senate President Steve Sweeney, Senator Paul Sarlo, Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, Senator Bob Gordon, Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco and several Bergen County freeholders spoke in favor of the expansion. Alyana Alfaro, PolitickerNJ Read more

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A mix-up in the Meadowlands: Towns haven’t received hotel surcharge

Met life stadium theridgewoodblog.net 1

JUNE 14, 2015, 11:52 PM    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, JUNE 15, 2015, 12:14 AM
BY LINDA MOSS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

Six towns have been waiting a month for their shares of nearly $2.5 million in revenue from a new hotel-room surcharge, which replaced a controversial tax-sharing arrangement when Governor Christie signed a bill overhauling oversight of the Meadowlands District this year.

The overdue money is contributing to an atmosphere of confusion in the Meadowlands four months after the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority absorbed the state Meadowlands Commission, the agency that had controlled planning and development in the 30-square-mile district for nearly half a century.

The law, which Christie signed in early February, ushered in the most sweeping changes to the region’s power structure in decades. The governor said it would give the Meadowlands a much-needed economic boost, while opponents worried that it would result in overdevelopment of an environmentally sensitive area of the state.

But the absorption of the Meadowlands Commission’s functions by the sports authority is having unexpected financial repercussions for the 14 Bergen and Hudson county municipalities  that have territory within the district.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/a-mix-up-in-the-meadowlands-towns-haven-t-received-hotel-surcharge-1.1355773

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Incoming Bergen County exec says he supports expanding gambling to Meadowlands

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Incoming Bergen County exec says he supports expanding gambling to Meadowlands

NOVEMBER 25, 2014, 6:47 PM    LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2014, 6:27 AM
BY JOHN BRENNAN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

In a speech to a receptive business group, incoming Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco on Tuesday said he supports expanded gambling at the Meadowlands Sports Complex, as part of a remaking of the complex that includes a convention center and a hotel.

During his remarks to the Meadowlands Regional Chamber, Tedesco also said that he recently met with executives of Triple Five — the new developers of the long-stalled shopping and entertainment complex that is once again under construction at the Sports Complex. — and that they agreed to meet with the Bergen freeholder board “within the next three weeks.” Tedesco, a supporter of the company’s American Dream plan, said he wanted Triple Five to make a presentation to update the freeholders on the progress at the site.

During the campaign, in which he ousted incumbent Republican Kathleen Donovan, Tedesco had said he supported casino gambling at the Meadowlands.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/incoming-bergen-county-exec-says-he-supports-expanding-gambling-to-meadowlands-1.1141154

 

 

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“Jim” McGreevey’s Xanadu agreement relies on plan for improved traffic access to and from Meadowlands

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“Jim” McGreevey’s Xanadu agreement relies on plan for improved traffic access to and from Meadowlands

MARCH 14, 2014, 7:04 PM
BY JOHN BRENNAN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

NJ Transit and the state Turnpike Authority have agreed to improve access to and from the Meadowlands Sports Complex as part of the deal reached earlier this week between the Giants and Jets and Triple Five, the developer of the American Dream project.

The agreement — reached as a settlement of the legal dispute between the teams and the developer over the traffic impact of Triple Five’s plan to add indoor water and amusement parks to the site — does not limit the hours the entertainment and retail complex can be open on game days and provides no compensation to the teams.

Rather, it relies on a comprehensive transportation plan involving state agencies, Triple Five and the teams to resolve the dispute, which at times had prompted the National Football League franchises to warn of a traffic “nightmare” if Triple Five was allowed to open on game days at hours when fans were coming and going.

When it became public this week, the agreement was hailed by officials as a step that would allow for work to resume at the project site, which has sat idle since 2009 when it was known as Xanadu. Indeed, Governor Christie, who has been a champion of Triple Five’s American Dream plan as an engine for economic development, predicted construction would begin right away, now that the teams and the company have made peace.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/american-dream-agreement-relies-on-plan-for-improved-traffic-access-to-and-from-meadowlands-1.741616#sthash.LBaF7pEN.dpuf

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Lawmakers joining call for casino in Bergen County

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Lawmakers joining call for casino in Bergen County
SUNDAY MARCH 2, 2014, 10:43 PM
BY  JOHN BRENNAN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

New Jersey, long a national pioneer in legal betting, has tried a host of new concepts in recent years to try to reverse the erosion of its onetime gambling dominance.

The downward trend has been most evident in Atlantic City, where casino revenues are off more than 40 percent from the 2006 peak of $5 billion — a decline that has continued despite the recent launch of online betting on casino games.

Now a growing chorus of state leaders is calling for New Jersey to go “all in” once again — with casino-style gambling at the Meadowlands Sports Complex.

“Forget all this online slots, online lottery and all that — let’s just put slot machines in at the Meadowlands and get it over with,” said state Sen. Richard Codey, D-Essex, whose sponsorship of bills backing the Atlantic City casino industry dates to the industry’s origin in the late 1970s. “We need to stop trying to put Band-Aids on a gunshot wound to the head. Let’s accept the fact that Atlantic City’s problem is ‘location, location, location’ and move on from that.”

State Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, called other steps under consideration — including plans announced last week to increase the jackpots at the casinos — “fringe elements” that are unlikely to make a major difference in a $2 billion decline that has left state tax revenues with a nearly $200 million shortfall.

“The only way to maximize gambling revenues in the state is to have a high-class casino in the Meadowlands,” Sarlo said.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/arts_entertainment/Lawmakers_joining_call_for_casino_in_Bergen_County.html#sthash.QIGljN48.dpuf