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Meadowlands Xanadu breaks ground

Construction can began this week on the Meadowlands Xanadu mixed-use project, now that it has the environmental go-ahead.

The Mills Corp. and Mack-Cali Realty Corp., the project's developers, had been awaiting approval from the Army Corps of Engineers and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. The conservation organization is to oversee preservation and wildlife management of the wetlands area where the project will be built.

Mills and Mack-Cali expect to open the 4.8 million-square-foot entertainment, sports, retail, office and hotel complex in late 2007. The project is going up at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in Bergen County, N.J., within five miles of New York City.

"The Mills Corporation is proud to play a key role in two historic events for the state of New Jersey: the revitalization of the Meadowlands Sports Complex and the protection of the vast Empire Tract," said Laurence C. Siegel, Mills' chairman and CEO, in a news release. "I am pleased to say that with the final permit in hand, we now can bring to life Meadowlands Xanadu's unique blend of new concepts in interactive entertainment, dining, retail and night life, and simultaneously ensure that for generations to come, visitors to the Meadowlands will be able to enjoy the pristine beauty of the incomparable natural resource known as the Empire Tract."

The developers are paying $869,000 to the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission to mitigate the project's environmental effects.

Compiled by the staff of Shopping Centers Today. © March 21, 2005 International Council of Shopping Centers.