American Dream Mall Lost $60M Last Year Amid Ongoing Financing Issues
By Nicholas Rizzi May 4, 2022 5:22 pm
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The American Dream mall’s money woes keep on growing.
The 3.5 million-square-foot megamall in Rutherford, N.J., lost nearly $60 million last year. Meanwhile, its owner Triple Five Group is trying to get a loan extension to pay back its $1.7 billion in construction financing, according to securities filings first reported by Bloomberg.
American Dream pulled in a total of $173 million in revenue in 2021 — nearly $100 million of that from attractions and about $49 million from rental income — while it had $232 million in expenses, the securities filings show.
The majority of its losses, $73 million, were categorized as “non operating expenses” followed by $53 million in payroll, according to the filings.
A spokesperson for American Dream declined to comment.
The $5.7 billion American Dream took nearly two decades, and three developers, to build The mall finally opened in October 2019, just in time for the pandemic to hit the United States. It reopened in October 2020 and has seen a steady increase in shoppers, but has been mired in debt and has struggled to make bond payments.
In February, the mall nearly cleaned out its reserve account to cover a $9.3 million bond payment, leaving only a meager $820 in the account.
It recently hired legal and financial advisers to help it pare down its $3 billion in debt while Triple Five has been trying to get a four-year extension to pay back its construction loans, according to Bloomberg.
American Dream’s financial woes already caused Triple Five to lose 49 percent stakes in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., and Edmonton Mall in Canada. Kurt Hagen, an executive at Triple Five, previously told Bloomington officials that instead of suffering through a pandemic “it would have been much better if American Dream would have burned down or a hurricane had hit it, financially, because we would have been covered by insurance.”
The mall’s indoor ski slope was hit by a fire in September 2021 that has caused it to close. The slope plans to reopen on Memorial Day weekend, Bloomberg reported.
Nicholas Rizzi can be reached at nrizzi@commercialobserver.com.
