Word: xanadu
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...that thing is a mall called Xanadu, located in East Rutherford. The name is a nod to the heavenly summer home immortalized by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge: "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan/ A stately pleasure-dome decree." It's also the name of a ridiculous 1980 Olivia Newton-John movie involving roller-skating muses and disco. Slated to open in August, Xanadu, a wannabe shopping paradise, will be a 2.4 million-sq.-ft. retail and entertainment complex located 3½ miles from the Empire State Building, across the Hudson River at the intersection of the New Jersey Turnpike...
...Across the state, the project has taken a rightful beating for its exterior. The Meadowlands location isn't scenic - it's surrounded by weedy wetlands, decrepit factories, shipping containers and railroads - and Xanadu's developers spent $2 billion on what seems like the most hideous spot on the lot. "It's basically a lot of junk," says former New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne, for whom the basketball area at the Meadowlands was once named (it's now the Izod Center). "I drive by with friends and we're embarrassed." (See pictures of the world's longest yard sale...
...Shopping Centers (ICSC) has predicted that 73,000 stores will close their doors during the first half of 2009. Retail expert Burt Flickinger III, managing director of Strategic Resources Group, projects that 2,000 to 3,000 shopping malls and centers nationwide could go under this year. If Xanadu - which allegedly has leased 73% of its space thus far - does open in 2009, it would be the only enclosed mall to debut this year, according to the ICSC. Xanadu is the lone ranger, running straight into every possible horrible economic headwind. "It's the poster child for bad timing," says...
...What's worse, according to Xanadu's detractors, is that the mall will offer discretionary amenities at a time when consumers are in survival mode. For example, that ski jump structure will actually house a 165,000 sq. ft. indoor skiing and snowboarding facility. The mall will also include restaurants like the Cheesecake Factory, whose 2008 profits dropped nearly 30% amid the casual-dining meltdown; an 18-screen movie theater; fashion retailers such as H&M, Guess and Zara; and Cabela's, an upmarket fishing, hunting, outdoor apparel and equipment outlet. Adrenalia, an extreme-sports store, is slated to have...
...foam, and the inaugural Worst Picture award went to Allan Carr's Can't Stop the Music, a musical comedy that fictionalized the story behind the Village People. "I happened to pay 99 cents for a double feature of Can't Stop the Music and Olivia Newton John in Xanadu and was refused my money back afterward," Wilson says...