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Jets\Giants Try To Block Mega-Mall. What Do You Think?


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Bergen County Executive Blasts Giants, Jets Owners Over Aversion To Proposed Mega-Mall

Kathleen Donovan Tees-Off, Says Teams Selfishly Want To Stop Development

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/06/26/bergen-county-executive-blasts-giants-jets-owners-over-aversion-to-proposed-mega-mall/

June 26, 2012 7:28 PM

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The Xanadu entertainment complex and the Izod Center are seen at the Meadowlands from Chopper 880 – East Rutherford, NJ – Photo: Tom Kaminski / WCBS 880

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — The Giants and Jets don’t want it. Neither do the residents.

But on Tuesday a prominent leader said New Jersey desperately needs the mega-mall once known as “Xanadu.”

And this madness at the Meadowlands is taking an especially nasty turn, CBS 2’s Christine Sloan reported.

It’s an ugly fight between the owners of the Giants and the Jets, whose teams play at nearby MetLife Stadium, and developers who want to turn the ugly building into a huge entertainment center.

Now, the woman in charge of Bergen County, where both buildings sit, has picked sides. County Executive Kathleen Donovan took shots at the teams’ owners.

“I think it’s two billionaires who want their own way and to stop the development in Bergen County,” Donovan said. “How dare they tell us how we’re going to help the people of this area and region.”

The teams have filed a lawsuit to stop the expansion of American Dream, a huge entertainment complex that will replace the eyesore off of the New Jersey Turnpike in East Rutherford.

“We’ve got 9,000 construction jobs and 12,000 permanent jobs dependent on the finishing of American Dream at Meadowlands,” Donovan said.

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An artist’s rendering of what the Triple Five Group’s proposed new mall could look like. (Photo: Triple Five Group)

The owners of the Giants and Jets said they turned to the courts after unsuccessful negotiations with Triple Five Group, the developers of American Dream. They want to build amusement and water park next to the entertainment center, which is right across from the stadium where the Giants and Jets play their games.

In a statement, Giants co-owner John Mara said he’s concerned the center will cause more traffic, and that “we cannot allow any actions to negatively impact our fans’ commute, tailgating and game day experience.”

Sports fans Sloan spoke to agreed.

“I think the area is for the Giants and the Jets and they should leave it be. What they should do is get rid of that ski slope and put more parking spaces in,” said Marie Santora of Rutherford.

A spokesperson for American Dream disagrees, saying they’ll stand off against the Giants and Jets in court.

“They seem to be more concerned about the competition for the consumer dollar than they are about whether or not the facility is good for the people of New Jersey,” spokesman Alan Marcus said.

The entertainment complex itself is scheduled to be done in 2014. Developers said the lawsuit won’t delay the opening.

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Aside from clown-face Donovan being a buffoon as usual, there are a few ways to look at this. One is that the stadium was subsidized by public money, so part of me thinks that the public interest should be an important consideration in deciding what to do with this craphole. Another is that Mara and Woody have every right to protect the vitality of their business interests. Another is... of all the people I've talked to about that monstrosity, does ANYBODY really want a mall there??? I mean, seriously. We have GSP and Paramus Park within spitting distance of the stadium, and Palisades is close as well. What the F do we need another half assed mall for?

Obviously, I would need to see breakdowns of 1) dollars and cents and 2) public opinion, but my gut reactions are: the Jets and Giants are right, the mall is and has always been a stupid idea, and a water park would be AWESOME!!!!!!

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Woody sits in his helicopter looking down thinking to himself, "“ 9,000 and 12,000 permanent jobs" . "Why the hell would anybody want to work for a living?" "Preposterous."

...as it eliminates 13000 jobs and closes businesses in the surrounding areas and makes driving even more untenable there than it already is. Aren't there a bunch of shopping centers & malls in the area already? They're only going to create jobs and open businesses that close elsewhere. Jobs and new businesses in a new mall will not exist in a vacuum. There may be 12,000 new jobs but there won't be 12,000 additional jobs. Only someone as slimy as a politician with ancillary interests of his (or her) own could myopically suggest & portray it otherwise.

That being said, if the Jets & Giants don't want anything else there, they should buy the building from the current owner themselves and do what they want with it. Telling people what they can and can't do with their own super-expensive property, after getting some pretty sweet deals from NJ themselves, is pretty obnoxious. Unless they got some written agreement from the complex and the state that no shopping center would be built there, in exchange for building a new ugly stadium there as opposed to NY or somewhere else, then they should just zip it.

Then again, I don't live there so what the hell do I care?

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...as it eliminates 13000 jobs and closes businesses in the surrounding areas and makes driving even more untenable there than it already is. Aren't there a bunch of shopping centers & malls in the area already?

That being said, if the Jets & Giants don't want anything else there, they should buy the building from the current owner themselves and do what they want with it. Telling people what they can and can't do with their own super-expensive property, after getting some pretty sweet deals from NJ themselves, is pretty obnoxious. Unless they got some written agreement from the complex and the state that no shopping center would be built there, in exchange for building a new ugly stadium there as opposed to NY or somewhere else, then they should just zip it.

This is the other way to look at it. Lol

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That mall is an absolute unmitigated disaster. It's been sitting there completely built for years but the problem is there's no stores who actually want to put themselves into that piece of crap, so it just sits there empty. I can actually kind of understand where the teams are coming from, considering the fact that they're already taking up so much space that is getting no use, and the original plans had to be negotiated with the teams to begin with due to the countless issues it was going to cause with traffic and parking with the mall doing their construction on that site. I can kind of understand why the teams would be less than pleased with a complete failure like that to then want to go above and beyond that.

That said, while I can understand where they're coming from, I think Sperm pretty much hit the nail on the head with what he said. They certainly don't have to like it, but unless it's their property or they want to make it so, they don't have a whole lot of room to talk either. About the only thing would be if their construction was causing any specific roadway and traffic issues, in which they should be responsible for whatever costs were associated with managing that.

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We have GSP and Paramus Park within spitting distance of the stadium, and Palisades is close as well. What the F do we need another half assed mall for?

Outside of the fact that it's probably one of the few places they could find with enough open space to build that monstrosity, I have no idea what they were thinking building that thing there. In addition to the malls you mentioned, there's also a slew of major outlets just a little down rt 3 in Secaucus. Just the pain in the ass of getting in and out of that complex would be enough to have people prefer the various other options in the area.

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I live in Bergen County so I know there are "blue laws" that prevent malls from being open on Sundays. Not sure how the mall would affect gamedays in any way as far as traffic is concerned. I would assume that since the mall would be closed on Sundays that fans could park there and take a shuttle to the stadium so that takes care of the parking issue. I just don't see the need for ANOTHER mall when there are about 10 malls and shopping centers in Bergen County already.

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Just as a comment on something that doesn't affect me at all. These stats on job creation are probably total BS.

Historically, around the country, When these super malls open, the smaller malls around them either close, or fall into shambles. Most of the employment will be from stores moving from the old malls to the new one. Same employees.

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I live in Bergen County so I know there are "blue laws" that prevent malls from being open on Sundays. Not sure how the mall would affect gamedays in any way as far as traffic is concerned. I would assume that since the mall would be closed on Sundays that fans could park there and take a shuttle to the stadium so that takes care of the parking issue. I just don't see the need for ANOTHER mall when there are about 10 malls and shopping centers in Bergen County already.

Cause those people can't spend the extra time when they are so busy booking their next appointment on their Ipad while texting their significant other about how their day was so tough all while driving.

Seriously though, people seem to have less and less time to do anything because we have too many other things to preoccupy ourselves with. So why waste the time driving a whole 10 extra minutes to get to GSP, or however long it would take, when you can have one right in the scenic swampy area that is East Rutherford.

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...as it eliminates 13000 jobs and closes businesses in the surrounding areas and makes driving even more untenable there than it already is. Aren't there a bunch of shopping centers & malls in the area already? They're only going to create jobs and open businesses that close elsewhere. Jobs and new businesses in a new mall will not exist in a vacuum. There may be 12,000 new jobs but there won't be 12,000 additional jobs. Only someone as slimy as a politician with ancillary interests of his (or her) own could myopically suggest & portray it otherwise.

That being said, if the Jets & Giants don't want anything else there, they should buy the building from the current owner themselves and do what they want with it. Telling people what they can and can't do with their own super-expensive property, after getting some pretty sweet deals from NJ themselves, is pretty obnoxious. Unless they got some written agreement from the complex and the state that no shopping center would be built there, in exchange for building a new ugly stadium there as opposed to NY or somewhere else, then they should just zip it.

Then again, I don't live there so what the hell do I care?

Agreed.

One thing(among too many) I reallly hate, Hate HATE about sh*thouse Expensive New Stadium-they built a whole new traffice pattern in and around the place that did nothing to alleviate the congestion. In fact it's now worse. You know that going to and leaving a game will often be a headache, but it's now more confused and chaotic than it was in the old place. The Jets and Giants are right: the mall would make it a traffic nightmare. But it already is because they were so freaking greedy with their crappy stadium plan. It's ironic; 2 greedy f___ers are suing another greedy bunch of f___ers.. F__'em both.

At some point that imbeclic ski slope over Route 3 needs to come down.

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sadly I have no interest in going to the big grey toaster

so the traffic means nothing to me

I have a hunch if I gave you 4 coaches club tickets with field passes to meet and greet before the game you would go.

Personally I dont care where they play, I would go watch them if there were no seats and the stadium was falling apart.

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I have a hunch if I gave you 4 coaches club tickets with field passes to meet and greet before the game you would go.

Personally I dont care where they play, I would go watch them if there were no seats and the stadium was falling apart.

I went to shea, went to the old place in thunderstorms, but the fan reviews and prices for the new place are just nuts. I really just have no interest. I'd rather watch it home with my wife and kids and not worry about drunken idiots all around me (well fewer drunken idiots anyway)

I know I'm a lousy fan, the game day thing is just a thing of the past for me

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Aside from clown-face Donovan being a buffoon as usual, there are a few ways to look at this. One is that the stadium was subsidized by public money, so part of me thinks that the public interest should be an important consideration in deciding what to do with this craphole. Another is that Mara and Woody have every right to protect the vitality of their business interests. Another is... of all the people I've talked to about that monstrosity, does ANYBODY really want a mall there??? I mean, seriously. We have GSP and Paramus Park within spitting distance of the stadium, and Palisades is close as well. What the F do we need another half assed mall for?

Obviously, I would need to see breakdowns of 1) dollars and cents and 2) public opinion, but my gut reactions are: the Jets and Giants are right, the mall is and has always been a stupid idea, and a water park would be AWESOME!!!!!!

nj meadowlands wins!!!

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Aside from clown-face Donovan being a buffoon as usual, there are a few ways to look at this. One is that the stadium was subsidized by public money, so part of me thinks that the public interest should be an important consideration in deciding what to do with this craphole. Another is that Mara and Woody have every right to protect the vitality of their business interests. Another is... of all the people I've talked to about that monstrosity, does ANYBODY really want a mall there??? I mean, seriously. We have GSP and Paramus Park within spitting distance of the stadium, and Palisades is close as well. What the F do we need another half assed mall for?

Obviously, I would need to see breakdowns of 1) dollars and cents and 2) public opinion, but my gut reactions are: the Jets and Giants are right, the mall is and has always been a stupid idea, and a water park would be AWESOME!!!!!!

You nailed it, You have to remember that the current owners of AMERICAN DREAM are the very same group that owns the "Mall of America" and the very "Palisades Center" that you referred to earlier...

With that in mind, what really is the stumbling block is a simple one - Tax Revenue...

Bergen County needs more revenue to replace the loss in tax increases that it can no longer press onto their local taxpayers through their property taxes...

American Dream needs to be open 7-days a week in order to get the revenue needed to maintain a valued location..

The JETS/GIANTS Organizations need the facility to be closed on Game Days (Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays & late season Saturdays), something that it appears Bergen County or the owners of "American Dream" are no longer willing to give up.

Remember, when Xanadu 1st began construction, a deal was created between the NJSEA, the New York JETS & New York Giants along with the now Defunct "Mills Corporation" to build an "Outlet/Entertainment Center" within spitting distance of NYC. Both teams gave into the idea when they were allowed the use of the parking facility & the arrangement that the "Mall" would be closed on Game Days.

The more the revenue moves, the more greed NE NJ strives to get their paws in it...

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