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You
Just Can't Hide the Ugly
Doblin:
They can’t see the bar code for the trees
Alfred
Doblin - Thursday,
May 21, 2009
The
Record online, www.NorthJersey.com
I
WORKED in Detroit in the late 1980s. There was a monorail that
circled the city. It was called the People Mover. Tourists, the
few that came downtown, loved it. City officials didn’t want tourists
to see how desperate downtown Detroit had become. The remedy they
devised was to paint the windows of all the abandoned downtown
buildings that hugged the monorail with fake images of habitation.
Imagine a life-sized Lionel train setup. But painted curtains
and painted people on the windows of abandoned buildings didn’t
fool anyone over the age of six. Well maybe a few older folks.
And I expect those are the people who believe planting 358 trees
around the still-not-ready-for-prime-time-mega-entertainment complex
called Xanadu will improve the aesthetics of North Jersey’s biggest
eye-sore.
Start
in the Right Direction
Pepsi
wheel postponed at least a year
Corey
Klein - Wednesday,
April 29, 2009
South
Bergenite online, www.southbergenite.com
The
New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority reports construction
of the Pepsi Globe, due to open in June, has been placed on hold.
Promising to be the country's largest observation wheel, right
here in the Meadowlands, the Pepsi Globe would be a major attraction
at Xanadu.
At its April 29 meeting, New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority
(NJSEA) President Carl Goldberg said it would likely be another
year before the wheel is up and running. Previous estimates slated
an opening this June.
Construction on the wheel will likely not start until before or
after the next National Basketball Association season, so it would
not conflict with parking issues. The basketball season typically
runs from October through April. Goldberg said it would not reasonably
open until August 2010.
Shows
up on the Radar
Xanadu
project lands on 'Troubled Assets Radar' list
John
Brennan and Andrew Tangel- Wednesday,
April 29, 2009
The
Record online, www.NorthJersey.com
The
Meadowlands Xanadu project has landed on a list any developer
would surely prefer to avoid — the “Troubled Assets Radar” of
Real Capital Analytics, a real estate research firm that analyzes
the nation’s major markets.
The long-delayed retail and entertainment project has joined a
“troubled” New York Metro list that includes the former Linens
‘n’ Things headquarters in Clifton, a Ridgefield Park office complex,
and the failed Centuria project in Fort Lee.
Can
You Hold Please...
Pepsi
Globe delayed
John
Brennan - Wednesday,
April 29, 2009
The
Record online, www.NorthJersey.com
The
286-foot Pepsi Globe — a gigantic Ferris wheel planned as an iconic
part of the Meadowlands Xanadu project — won’t become part of
the North Jersey skyline for at least another year, New Jersey
Sports and Exposition Authority officials said today.
Board members at their monthly meeting were told that erection
of the observation wheel has been “placed on hold at this time.”
“We determined that the construction of the wheel either needed
to be started and completed prior to the start of the next NBA
season, or suspended until the next basketball season has been
completed,” sports authority Chairman Carl Goldberg said. “The
wheel won’t reasonably be open until August 2010.”
Show
Me the Money
NJ's
Xanadu: Lessons for Stimulus Spending?
Bob
Hennelly - Tuesday,
March 17, 2009
WNYC online, www.wncy.org
NEW
YORK, NY March 17, 2009 —Billions of dollars in federal stimulus
aid is on the way to our region. But while local politicians are
applauding the aid, many of the decisions about how the money
will be spent will be made by public authorities largely operating
out of public view. WNYC's Bob Hennelly takes a look back at the
spending decisions surrounding one New Jersey transportation project
and asks what lessons it holds for stimulus spending.
Since colonists laid eyes on the awesome beauty that is the Hackensack
Meadowlands, this vast estuary has swallowed many get-rich quick
schemes. Farmers tried to turn the swamp into farmland. In the
industrial era, it became a magnet for toxic waste. By the 70s,
public consciousness about the value of the 20,000-acre wetland
region was growing. An eco-district was created to protect it.
Even so, 750 acres were exempted and bestowed on something to
be called the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA).
It would build a racetrack, arena and stadium on site and ultimately
go on to build and manage similar venues across the state.
Big
Delay - Bad News for Them, Good News for Us!
NJ
Xanadu project cites lender default for delay
Reporting
by Joan Gralla; Editing by Diane Craft - Friday,
March 20, 2009
Reuters online, www.reuters.com
NEW
YORK, March 20 (Reuters) - New Jersey's Xanadu project, a billion-dollar
shopping and entertainment complex located just west of New York
City in the Meadowlands, has been delayed again, this time due
to a lender's default, a spokesman said on Friday.
"We are contemplating a new opening date beyond August 2009 and
we have asked our contractors to refocus their work in line with
that goal," said Tim White, a spokesman for the project, in a
statement. Xanadu was supposed to open in 2007.
Will
They Go Forward?
Codey
questions Xanadu's viability
John
Brennan - Thursday,
January 15, 2009
The
Record online, www.NorthJersey.com
State
Senate President Richard Codey strongly questioned the viability
of the struggling Xanadu project today, given the repeated delays
in its opening as well as the downturn in the national economy.
“I think it’s a race to see which project is put in the grave
first: the Brooklyn [Barclays] arena or Xanadu,” Codey said, referring
also to the Nets’ long-deferred attempt to move out of the Izod
Center. “Let’s be honest about it. … You have one of the most
valuable pieces of real estate in the world, and it’s maybe 50
percent lined up with tenants — if we believe [Xanadu officials].
… Who knows if it’s going to open or not?”
Codey said people soon might be calling the Xanadu project “the
mistake at the Meadowlands.”
Ugly
on the Surface... and Below
Trouble
beneath Xanadu
Jeff
Pillets - Thursday,
January 15, 2009
The
Record online,
www.NorthJersey.com
Workers
at the Xanadu Meadowlands site have uncovered dozens of oozing
drums, leaking fuel tanks, sunken pools of chemical-laced liquid
and other hidden hazards since the project began almost four years
ago.
The discoveries, recounted in a new report by a project engineer,
show that contamination within the 104-acre Xanadu site has been
widespread and will remain a concern even after the $2 billion
shopping and entertainment center is due to open.
Back in the News
Lawmakers
want hearings on Xanadu contamination
Jeff
Pillets - Thursday,
January 15, 2009
The
Record online,
www.NorthJersey.com
Republican
lawmakers in Trenton joined with a prominent environmental group
Thursday in calling for hearings regarding soil and water contamination
at the Xanadu project.
“I am not surprised that the greatly troubled Xanadu entertainment
complex is back in the news,” said Sen. Christopher “Kip” Bateman,
R-Somerset, a member of the Senate Environment Committee. “We
cannot permit environmental contamination at this complex to threaten
the health of thousands of employees and visitors expected at
the site when it opens.”
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