Meadowlands/Xanadu Shopping & Entertainment Complex is Neither

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It's been called "perhaps the worst retail failure ever" and a "colossal real estate nightmare"—and, according to today's WWD, Meadowlands Xanadu, which was meant to be a 4.8 million square foot $2 billion shopping and entertainment center, has now pretty much completely hit a wall.

"After months of attempted negotiations with its lending syndicate to find ways to restructure the financing, lenders were 'unwilling to pursue alternate solutions to move the project forward,'" the industry paper reported. "The project is now controlled by the lenders."

Ground broke on the ambitious project in 2004 and the complex was projected to open two years later, in 2006. Today, Xanadu lies unfinished near the sparkly-new Meadowlands Stadium, which is scheduled to host the Superbowl in 2014. Construction has been suspended since 2009, after financial backer Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy.
· Xanadu mall project hits wall [WWD]