America's Craziest Mall Will Offer Indoor Surfing, Skiing, Topshop

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Now meet American Dream Meadowlands, the proposed New Jersey mall that will end all malls with its fabulous over-the-topness. Formerly named Meadowlands Xanadu, the shopping center is a $1.8 billion project that will span 2.3 million square feet and include an indoor water and amusement park, per NorthJersey.com.

In August, our sister site Racked NY reported that American Dream Meadowlands was close to securing some major retail partners including Topshop, Uniqlo, Forever 21 and Zara. In addition, the mall will host Cirque du Soleil performances and will contain a ski slope, skydiving wind tunnels and an enormous ferris wheel—the country's largest (that is, if all the funding can be worked out). But that's not all: Today, NJ.com has the news that American Dream is adding another aquatic pleasure to its lineup.

According to the report, the Canadian company Triple Five—which is responsible for American Dream Meadowland's enormous scope and can also be lauded/blamed for the Mall of America—is in the midst of planning the "world's largest wave-generating pool" for the mall. It will be the size of a football field and will produce "8-foot barreling peaks to beginner learning waves, allowing for authentic surfing on real surfboards with fins."

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is a big proponent of the project, saying that it will bring funds and jobs to his state. Sierra Club's NJ director, meanwhile, threw major shade at the idea of a surf park atop wetlands. "Surfing?" he asked. "Why don't they just wait for the next hurricane storm surge? You could have been talking about doing some real curls in the parking lot."
· American Dream [Official Site]
· Surfing the Meadowlands? World's largest surf riding pool eyed for American Dream [NJ.com]
· Crazy NJ Mall Will Have a Topshop, Ferris Wheel, and Ski Slope [Racked NY]