Construction work on a long-delayed ‘megamall’ in New Jersey, US, which features an amusement park, water park, observation wheel and indoor ski facility – is finally set to resume.
Canada-based developer Triple Five has reached an agreement with Bergen County Building & Construction Trades Council to start work on the US$2bn (€1.45bn, £1.19bn) American Dream entertainment and shopping complex, which will feature the largest mix of indoor facilities in the world when it opens in autumn 2016.
The main attractions at the complex are a 27,871sq m (300,000sq ft) Dreamworks-themed park, a 20,903sq m (225,000sq ft) water park, a Big Snow America indoor ski slope featuring a 244m (800ft) ski slope, and an observation wheel providing a 25-minute panoramic view of the New York skyline.
As well as an array of retail outlets, the American Dream will also include an aquarium, performing arts theatre, National Hockey League-sized ice rink, miniature golf and a cinema.
The developer says the complex should attract about 60 million visitors annually.
The project was first announced in 2007 and was
originally named Xanadu, but construction was abandoned in 2009 after financing ran out.
Triple Five took over the project in 2010. Since then, it has redesigned the unfinished building, but has had to overcome a lawsuit filed by National Football League teams New York Giants and New York Jets, tenants of the nearby Met Life Stadium, over design and traffic concerns.
The two teams, who claimed the developer failed to get their permission to expand the footprint of the complex from its original design, dropped the suit in March.
Among its amendments to the building, Triple Five will construct a 24.4m (80ft) tall glass wall to replace some of the more controversial work on the complex’s exterior.
