New Jersey’s Local Finance Board approved a plan to use an out-of-state lending agency that specializes in risky securities to finance an $800 million bond sale to resurrect American Dream, the unfinished mega mall begun more than a decade ago, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The project in East Rutherford, about 10 miles west of Manhattan, has failed to fulfill several promised grand-opening dates as developers ran out of cash. It now anticipates opening in mid-2018. The latest idea calls for public financing of $125 million more than the mall’s latest owner, Triple Five Group of Canada, proposed in May. The bonds would be sold by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to the Wisconsin Public Finance Authority, according to agency documents. The Wisconsin pass-through operation charges a fee to market tax-exempt bonds for out-of-state entities. Triple Five expects the debt to be unrated and tax-exempt, and the offering made in September, according to Tony Armlin, vice president of development and construction. The deal swelled to $800 million, he said, because issuance and construction costs have increased.
