Secaucus Mayor Describes 'Positive' Meeting With American Dream

SECAUCUS, NJ — Secaucus Mayor Mike Gonnelli said that this past Tuesday, July 16 he had a sit-down meeting with the family that owns the American Dream mega mall, scheduled to open this fall, and described the takeaway as "very good, very positive."

On Tuesday, the Secaucus mayor — who earlier this spring threatened to sue American Dream over traffic the mall will cause — met with Raphael Ghermezian, one of the principals at Triple Five, at Ghermezian's offices on the American Dream construction site across the river.

While Gonnelli said the meeting was private, and he cannot reveal everything that was discussed, "The meeting was overall very good. He was very open and forthcoming and respectful, and I was very respectful," he said. "He was very sincere in what he was telling me, which is not how other interactions I've had (with that company) have gone."

Triple Five is the owner and developer of the American Dream mall; the company bought the site in 2011 when construction stalled on the failed-Xanadu. Triple Five is a privately-owned real estate development firm based in Canada; to this day, it remains exclusively owned and operated by the Ghermezian family. The Ghermezians are native Iranians who emigrated to Montreal on the eve of the Iranian revolution. Triple Five also owns and operates the Mall of American in Minnesota.

According to Gonnelli, American Dream is still on track to open Oct. 25 of this year. However, that opening will likely be just the entertainment portion of the mega complex; the mall still has retail vacancies to fill.

"They'll be opening the parts they can control: The water park, the aquarium, the Ferris wheel, which they are supposed to start building soon," said the mayor.

The 93-acre American Dream has approximately 450 retail store slots total. So far, publicly confirmed tenants are: Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, Barneys New York, Watches of Switzerland, Hermes, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Uniqlo, H&M, Zara, Banana Republic, Gap, MAC, Microsoft, Pink and Victoria's Secret.

What about the Rt. 3 traffic nightmare the mall will without question cause? Local Secaucus roads will also likely be impacted, too.

The Ghermezians have requested that NJ Transit run daily train service from the Secaucus train station to the mall. But Gonnelli said today he doesn't think that is likely, although a spokesman for Triple 5 said they will continue to be working towards that. What is confirmed is NJ Transit will be running increased buses from Secaucus Junction and Port Authority to the mall. Planning for those buses is still being worked out, an NJ Transit spokeswoman told Patch Thursday. This spring, Gov. Murphy publicly said he'd like to build a high-speed Maglev monorail train to American Dream, but no planning has been done on that yet. A Maglev train floats on magnets.

Once the mall opens, Secaucus will receive $100,000 a year for it, in a deal arranged more than ten years ago with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. The NJSEA owns the land on which the mall sits. Gonnelli said Thursday he was unsuccessful in getting town of Secaucus any more than that.

Compare that to Carlstadt, which will receive $1 million per year.

According to Triple Five, American Dream is supposed to include a Nickelodeon theme park, an indoor ski and snowboard park (supposedly the first in the Western Hemisphere) and an aquarium with a walk-through tunnel.

Related:

Secaucus Threatens Legal Action Over American Dream Opening