New American Dream Details Emerge as Developers Show Off Property

Occasionally writing about the American Dream Meadowlands feels like covering Knoebels' Flying Turns project once again, though maybe I'm just being a tad dramatic.  Still, it has been so very many years since the failed mega-mall in North Jersey started work, stopped, started.... etc that there are similarities, at least.

The good news is that the project really is moving forward now, and that means workers are on site and heavy construction work is going on, and that includes creating the foundations for the 300,000 square foot indoor amusement park and 225,000 indoor water park out of a boggy area of land.  This has included drilling 5,000 piles anywhere from 60 to 80 feet into the ground to support the parks.

A look at the American Dream's amusement park from a couple years ago.

Triple Five, the developers behind the American Dream project, also run the Mall of America, so they "get" what it will take to pull something like this off.  There's the amusement and water park, an indoor ski slope, aquarium, observation wheel, performance theater (rumored to be a resident Cirque du Soleil show), ice rink, movie theaters, hotel and more to complete.  Even with so much announced, details have been somewhat thin thus far but some new items have appeared as a result of some recent press tours.  This article covers many of them, which include:

• Triple Five's COO said the water park's slides will be the "tallest and longest" in the world - a hard thing to actually accomplish but still promising.
• The Dreamworks theming for at least the water park (though probably the theme park, too) is still alive, and designed attractions include "Shrek’s Soggy Swamp and the Madagascar Rain Forest."
• The giant 286 foot observation wheel on property will be called the Dreamview Observation Wheel and give views of the NYC skyline.

Hopefully the mall can finish their leasing process so they can focus on divulging other details and both the amusement and water parks soon.