American Dream, the most expensive U.S. shopping center ever built, is behind on its bills, the Wall Street Journal reported. Its owner, Canadian mall operator Triple Five Group, failed to make a quarterly $125,000 payment that was due on Aug. 1 to East Rutherford, N.J., according to the town’s mayor. It is the second time the developer has been late on the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes. The owner of the sprawling shopping center and entertainment complex, located across the Hudson River from Manhattan in East Rutherford, hoped to redefine the mall experience when it opened in 2019 after a cost of $6 billion. It was the first mall in the U.S. to devote more space to entertainment, restaurants and theme-park rides than to traditional retail, part of an ambitious effort to lure younger shoppers away from their screens and to the complex. Its nearly 90-acre site includes a 16-story indoor ski hill, a roller coaster, as well as a water park with a steep slide that rises 14 stories high. Triple Five Group has found it challenging to make the project financially viable. The mall was closed for six months as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it continues to struggle even as foot traffic to the complex picks up.
