Welcome to The Brink. I’m Reshmi Basu , a reporter in New York, where private equity funds are keeping their troubled companies afloat in a bet the economy will avoid a hard landing. But before that, we’ll look at the latest troubles of the $5 billion New Jersey megamall known as the American Dream and Strategic Value Partners founder Victor Khosla’s grim outlook for office real estate. Follow this link to subscribe. Send us feedback and tips at [email protected].
It’s been a rough three years for the American Dream, the $5 billion megamall outside Manhattan, Martin Z. Braun and Erin Hudson report. It opened in late 2019 only to contend with pandemic lockdowns that delayed the unveiling of its retail stores. Then there was the fire that temporarily shut its indoor ski slope and the decorative helicopter inside its waterpark that fell and injured four patrons. And that’s on top of the decade of troubles before the project opened.