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Date Posted: 13:48:05 02/12/03 Wed
Author: copied
Subject: From NJO DOT COM


'Xanadu' wins sports chief's backing for Meadowlands

Mills Corp. vows agency will get millions in income


Wednesday, February 12, 2003


BY MATTHEW FUTTERMAN
Star-Ledger Staff

George Zoffinger, chief executive at the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, today will recommend his agency select the Mills Corp./Mack-Cali Realty Corp. partnership to transform the Continental Airlines Arena site into the region's top retail and family entertainment destination.

According to senior officials in Gov. James E. McGreevey's administration, the $1.2 billion Mills/Mack-Cali plan, called "Xanadu," beat two competitors by promising to deliver hundreds of millions of dollars for the debt-laden agency, the state and municipalities in southern Bergen County. Mills and Mack-Cali will also donate nearly 600 acres of sensitive wetlands and contribute $65 million to bring mass transit to the sports complex in East Rutherford.

"We're talking about a lot of money here," one of the administration officials said. "This is big."

Zoffinger and Bob Sommer, a spokesman for Xanadu, declined comment yesterday.

The selection of Xanadu, which is likely to be approved by the sports authority's 13-member board of commissioners at this morning's monthly meeting, is a major triumph for the Virginia-based Mills Corp. It ends the company's decade-long, $100 million quest to build a major retail and entertainment destination in the Meadowlands region.

Xanadu will feature North America's first indoor skiing facility; Underwater World, a state-of-the-art aquarium that re-creates a walk on the ocean floor; four office towers built by Cranford-based Mack-Cali; and more than 1 million square feet of high-fashion retail and restaurants.

For the sports authority, the redevelopment will represent a watershed moment in the evolution of the 31-year-old agency that also operates Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport and three South Jersey convention centers.

Robert Mulcahy, the sports authority's former chief executive, first suggested adding entertainment and retail venues to the 750-acre complex in 1994 as a way to bring more revenue to the money-losing agency. The plans languished for a decade, however, until Zoffinger began spearheading the redevelopment project shortly after taking office last March.

The 4.5 million-square-foot Xanadu marks the first major alterations to the complex since Continental Airlines Arena opened in 1981. Construction around the 104-acre arena site is expected to begin this summer.

Under the current plan, the Nets and Devils will leave the Continental Arena in 2005 or 2006 for a proposed arena in downtown Newark. That would clear the way for Mills and Mack-Cali to demolish the arena or convert the building into a convention center or performance space.

However, Mills and Mack-Cali have said Xanadu can accommodate an arena for the Nets and Devils if the teams decide to stay.

Xanadu faced its stiffest competition from Secaucus-based Hartz Mountain Industries and its partner, Forest City Ratner Cos. of New York.

The Hartz/Forest City team, led by Hartz president Emanuel Stern, proposed building a convention center, office and entertainment complex called Expo Park. Despite an aggressive advertising campaign, the Expo Park plan got a late start.

Hartz spent the summer negotiating to become a partner with Mills. Those talks broke down in September, just two weeks before proposals were due, forcing Hartz to scramble to develop its own plan for the site.

Then, last month, after the Giants joined the Mills/Mack-Cali team, Stern felt his proposal's chances slipping away and decided to launch a campaign attacking Xanadu as a megamall in disguise. The campaign included full-page newspaper advertisements and a controversial video made at a Mills mall in Maryland that was sent to legislators.

The tape prompted a vigorous debate over traffic and the amount of retail on the site, but it also angered Zoffinger and, according to the governor's advisers, annoyed McGreevey.

A third bid from the Westfield Corp. of Los Angeles proposed turning the arena into a 2,000- to 6,000-seat performance space surrounded by restaurants and an office complex.

While Xanadu has received endorsements from several of North Jersey's leading politicians, including state Assembly Speaker Albio Sires (D-Hudson) and Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney, the proposal is not without its critics.

"I think all three applicants presented something much too big for the site," said former state Sen. Raymond Bateman, a sports authority commissioner and frequent critic of Zoffinger. "There are going to be real traffic problems."



Matthew Futterman can be reached at (973) 392-1732 or

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