From the NY Times:
Some Call for New Jersey to Intervene to Save Xanadu Project
As the half-built, multibillion-dollar Xanadu shopping and entertainment complex in the Meadowlands unravels along with its parent company’s finances, some top officials conceded the failure on Thursday and called for New Jersey to intervene, or even get rid of the developer.
It appears unlikely that the developer, the Mills Corporation, can finish the $2 billion project at the Meadowlands Sports Complex, and real estate experts and stock analysts say it is hardly more likely that the state can find another developer to finish it as planned. Even if it did, New Jersey could stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars on a project that many criticized as ill conceived from the start.
“I’m deeply troubled,” Gov. Jon S. Corzine said, referring to huge cost overruns and the expected dissolution of Mills, the company building Meadowlands Xanadu, a Disneyesque mall under construction on a huge swath of state land at the sports complex.
Mr. Corzine said at a news conference that his administration was deeply involved in trying to salvage Xanadu, although Gary Rose, the governor’s executive director for economic development, declined to discuss the issue. But Senate President Richard J. Codey urged the state to “pull the plug” on Mills and find a new plan and a new developer.
“It’s obvious that Mills can’t get this done, and anybody who says so has been dancing with Dorothy down the yellow brick road for too long,” said Senator Codey, who has long been a detractor of the Xanadu complex.
…
Rich Moore, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said that even if the state negotiates a new agreement for a scaled-down project, “there will be pain all around.”“The state will probably be in a position where they’ll have to help out, either the old guys a little bit or the new guys a little bit,” Mr. Moore said. “If the new guys say to the state, ‘I guess we can’t do anything unless you give us $100 million for some infrastructure,’ what are they going to say?”
Well here you have it.
NOw the nj taxpayers are going
to have to bail this waste out.
It has been a bust from the start.
The question of the day:
Who is going to be fired over this?
Answer: No one
Why: Because this is NJ and the
taxpayer takes the hit.
This project has been so bad
that its almost like someone
should be arrested for financial
fraud.
The state of NJ has been lied to
from the beginning and those
of us who understand finance saw it.
This was a bad deal for the
area, a bad deal for the towns,and lastly a bad deal for the state.
How much will it cost us.
So far they are saying hundreds of
Millions.
But sooner or later we will have another Mall. Just what we need.
By the way, Goldman is the led
on the loans to Mills.
Let’s see how good Corzine’s
contacts are.
He sure is going to need them.
Vornado Realtry trust (VNO)
will probaly be the company to
come into the deal.
I believe the guy who runs it
use to be at Goldman.
They will come in on the cheap
to bail it out.
They already have a large presense
in NJ. (Garden State Mall)
Smart operators.
lets hope, for the taxpayers ,
that they show some mercy.
Ironic, but there was also some talk of Hartz taking over eventually.
Hartz does not have the fire power
to pull this one off.
this is going to require a
big boy with plenty of financing
With Goldman already in the deal,
they will bring in their equity
partners on the cheap.
Goldman will make a nice score
on this one.
They already have may a nice score
on the investment banking fees
on the refi of Mills, and will
continue.
ie: the sale of mills assets to
satisfy the over 1 billion they
owe Goldman.
Now this is the kind of thing that drives me nuts.
“Mr. Moore said. “If the new guys say to the state, ‘I guess we can’t do anything unless you give us $100 million for some infrastructure,’ what are they going to say?””
What the state should say is some variation of “bite me.”
If there is any value to what’s there now, someone will come and try and extract it, even if they give Mills a penny on the dollar, which they might have a chance to do, considering the company’s collapse. Unless Mills’ efforts to date have been worthless, someone should be able to see a way to make a buck off this, without soaking the state.
Worse case scenario is it gets taken for the back taxes these clowns owe, oh wait a second, there’s probably some assinine tax abatement already in place.
This kind of corporate welfare is obscene.
Lindsey
you dont get. Mills owes no
taxes.
It was a give away.
“Save Xanadu?”
To quote Dr. Evil, “How ’bout NO!”
Just let it sink into the swamp. OR let Nascar take it over and build a nascar track, which is what they should have done in the first place. Talk about revenue!
This is going to hurt the state if they really pullout and have no one comes in.
I can see that by the lack of comments on this threads that alot of people don’t really understand the scope of this disaster.
Remember, the state gets its money from you the taxpayer, think of it this way, you work an 8 hr day, your first hour on your shift, you just paid the state.
SAS
mills stock up 20% today
based on rumors of a deal.
probably involves the meadows.
I for one understand, and been
calling this for months.
it had to come to this.
it was a poorly layed out
deal from the getgo.
a ski sloop for the meadows.
are you kidding , how about
a wave pool next so you can swim
while your wife shops for
the Banana Republic sale.
Has anybody been into the
Urban Outfitters shop in Montclair?
Get the jeans while you can.