Mall of America paved way for American Dream. What I learned at the country's largest mall (2024)

Editor's note: Check out more of our comprehensive coverage about American Dream Meadowlands.

North Jersey, the day has come. American Dream is finally opening.

After nearly two decades of false starts, delays and ownership changes, the giant mall that has been under construction in my hometown of East Rutherford for my entire adult life will be opening its doors — at least some of them—on Oct. 25.

The center, equipped with its own theme park, water park, ski slope and more will be like no retail center North Jersey has seen. But, it’s far from the first mall in the United States to push the boundaries of retail.

That feat goes to American Dream’s 27-year-old sister property, Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minnesota, just outside Minneapolis. The mall — which, like American Dream, is managed by the Canadian developer Triple Five — offers insightsonwhat North Jersey can expect once American Dream is fully operational next spring.

The malls have a lot in common: the same attractions, some of the same tenants, and even the same interior design. You couldbook a nonstop three-hour flight to Minneapolis to see for yourself —butwe did it for you.

Story continues after photo gallery.

Last week, Ivisited Mall of America to see what the hype is all about. What’s it like having a theme park inside a mall? How would that complement retail? Does a mall that big actually… work? Would I get lost? I found out all that, and a lot more.

Here’s what you can expect fromAmerican Dream, by way of MOA in Minnesota.

It’s the biggest mall in America, for now

Mall of America is really, really big — so big my Uber driver told me the mall has its own zip code. It does not, mall officials told me, after laughing when I asked.

“I’ve heard that one so many times,” said Daniel Jasper, the mall’s vice president of communications and my official tour guide. “It’s one of those modern fables.”

But the mall does feel like its own city. At 5.6 million square feet, Mall of America is the largest mall in North America. The only mall that could eventuallybe larger is American Dream Miami — another Triple Five project in its infancy.

An estimated 109,000 people visit MOAdaily, Jasper said. On busier days, like Black Friday, the mall sees as many as 280,000 shoppers. Annually, officials calculate 40 million guests.

American Dream:Complete guide to the mall's opening date, stores, water park, history

The mall’s size can be intimidating. It has three and a half levels, and during my first day there I walked 8.3 miles (pro tip: wear comfy shoes). One levelspans an estimated 1.1 miles, Jasper said.

There are more than 100 digital directories that help you navigate the mall.

Mall of America is shaped like a rectangle: in the center is the theme park, encircled by retail and dining establishments. The theme park is open-concept, so you don’t need a ticket to go inside. That won’t be the case at American Dream, which will have its entertainment and retail on opposite ends of the complex.

MOA looks similar to what American Dream looks like so far. At the main entrance is a multi-level “atrium” with a sleek black and white, minimalist feel.

“You notice our pallet is pretty light, in terms of the mall common area, and that was done on purpose,” Jasper said. “It used to not be that way. We did the entire interior of the mall over the past eight years or so.”

The clean palette ensures that shoppers will focus on the pops of color from tenant spaces, Jasper said. He expects a similar concept inside American Dream. Mall of America also has its share of art installations, similar to the designs that American Dream officials hinted at — like a pond where pennies are collected and donated to charity, and a skylight with dripping lights that mimic the feel ofchandeliers.

The mall doesn’t have a central heating system – despite Minnesota's cold winters.

“It’s heated three ways: heat generated by store lights and fixtures; heat generated by passive, solar heat frommore than eight acres of skylights; and the key ingredient, body heat of 40 million annual guests,” Jasper said.

Similar stores andattractions

Mall of America has more than 520 retail stores and restaurants, and several more attractions. The mall also has two hotels.

Many featuresin Minnesota willalso be incorporatedin East Rutherford thanks to relationships that Triple Five has already developed with its Minnesota tenants and partnersas well as those at its other properties, such as theWest Edmonton Mall in Canada. Jill Renslow, Mall of America'ssenior vice president of business development and marketing, saidTriple Five manages company-wide initiatives, like launching new concepts.

“That’s what’s great with American Dream and West Edmonton — it’s sharing those visions and those ideas,” Renslow said. “Because it may be something that’s innovative and we want to test it out at one property and see if customers like it, if it’s sticking, and then roll it out on the other properties.”

Some of Mall of America’s entertainment attractions may sound familiar to North Jersey residents who have paid attention to American Dream’s stream of announcements over the years.

There’s Nickelodeon Universe, SEA LIFE Minnesota Aquarium, Crayola Universe, the CMX Luxury Movie Theater, and the Lego Store. There are also similar retail tenants atboth properties, including Fourpost and IT’SUGAR. American Dream is expected to have an 18-hole Angry Bird miniature golf course — Mall of Americahas two mini-golf course with other themes.

A theme park, aquarium, and Legos, oh my!

I spent most of my time at Mall of America exploring the attractions that will also open in East Rutherford.

The Nickelodeon Universe theme park was the obvious start.

The theme park is fine, and it gets the job done: if you’re a thrill seeker, you will find a handful of rides that get your heart racing. The park is sprinkled with family rides, junior rides and thrill rides.

During my weekday visit, children were the primary customers on the theme park rides. In the afternoon, there were no lines to get onthe rides. One young girl, thrilledby the lowridership, told me,“I don’t usually get to ride the roller coastersso much!”

American Dream willhave rides with themes from Teenage Mutant Ninjas and Spongebob Squarepants, so I tested the Rock Bottom Plunge and Shell Shock.

The plunge starts by sending you up a 90-degree track toward the ceiling, followed by an immediate drop. It was probably my favorite thrill ride in the park. Shell Shock was a little different: it flies you in circles, slowly at first. If you’re savvy, you can navigate the wings on the side of your seat to spin yourself in circles. I couldn’t figure that out.

One attraction I enjoyed was the Dutchman’s Deck Adventure Course. It has three parts: a multi-level ropes course, a zip line that shoots you across the theme park, and a spiral slide. American Dream is expected to have something similar. It wasn’t as thrilling as zip lining across Old Vegas (maybe I’m hard to impress), but how often can you zip line across a mall?

Although fun, Mall of America’s theme park is small. This is coming from someone who grew up taking family trips to Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, which got me obsessed with that park's El Toro and Kingda Ka rides.

Nickelodeon Universe at Mall of America has 28 attractions. American Dream is expected to have more than 35, including several record-breaking coasters..

Two other MOA attractions I checked out were the Legoland Store and SEA LIFE Aquarium, run by Merlin Entertainments, which are also coming to American Dream. The two are likely to be hits for families with young children.

The Lego store is very much a retail store. Legos are on display in bins, like candy in a candy store.Kids were building their own creations alongside their parents. Just outside the shop, there is a designated Lego play area that was packed. The shop also has larger-than-life sculptures made from Legos.

“It’s a retail store, but it’s a huge attraction for us and people come here simply to see our Lego store,” Jasper said. He pointed to a giant robot made of Legos.“At least at the time it was built, that was the tallest Lego Structure in the world," he said. "There are 2.6 million Legos in that robot alone.”

Even for those who never step foot inside the Lego store, the sculptures seem as though they were part of the mall — shoppers frequently stopped to snap pictures of the Lego statues from the mall's second and third levels.

SEA LIFE, on the other hand, feels like its own world outside of Mall of America, perhaps because it sits in the mall's basem*nt. The attraction is much like your average aquarium. However, the attraction in East Rutherford is expected to be themed for its local market, said John Sullwold, SEA LIFE & LEGOLAND Discovery Centers’ communications manager for North America.

“I know in American Dream there will be a lot of theming focused on the local area, like Manhattan,” Sullwold said. “I’ve seen a little sneak peek, and it’s really going to show the New Jersey and city feel. It’s going to be really fun.”

It’s still..... a mall

Triple Five is known for being ahead of the game in retail — especially now, when retailers struggle to stay afloat and malls look for ways to revitalize themselves by recruiting experiential tenants orsetting themselves apart as destinations.

When Mall of America opened in 1992, the idea of building a theme park inside a mall was distinctive. Now, having such out-of-the-box experiences could be what keeps the retail sector afloat. The Minnesota mall’s success over the years is a byproduct of the Triple Five’s forward vision, Renslow said.

“We’ve always set the standard, and now everybody is catching up — you have to have more than retail, you have to have that mix of entertainment [and] dining,” Renslow said. “We’ve had that for 27 years.”

Although Mall of America has its share of entertainment and dining options, it is still a mall. And the property’s retail sector is not immune to the woes that have rocked the industry —illustrated by thegiant vacant space left behind by a bankrupt Sears. The space is tangled in bankruptcy proceedings, Jasper said.

“We have a lot of space here so there’s a constant turnover, which is a really healthy thing,” Jasper said. “Some concepts, some stores live their life.I remember the week the mall opened in 1992, and I remember many of the stores that were here back then. Most of them aren’t here anymore. They don’t exist.”

The type of shopper at MOA changesas the day progresses. When I was there, young families with children predominated during the mornings. Once school let out, high school kids started to show up — a surprising number of them chasing virtual monsters via Pokémon Go. By the evening, adults dressed in work clothes were jetting through, running errands before heading home.

The mall is divvied up into “neighborhoods,” Jasper said. It's acommon theme in most retail centers —management likes to cluster similar tenants.Soa shopper seekingluxury stores can find them allin one area of the mall, and a shopper looking for off-price shops will also find them together.

American Dream will offer a similar layout: itwill have a luxury retail wing, with Hermès, Dolce & Gabbana, Saint Laurent and Moncler, and a wing for the average shopper like me, the stereotypical millennial who shops at Zara.

MOAhas a solid transit infrastructure

One thing that Mall of America has that American Dream does not is a transit infrastructure that shuffles people into and out of the property almost seamlessly.

At MOA'smain entrance is a drop off location for all shuttle buses, tour buses, ride-shares and taxis. Just outside anotherentrance sits the busiest transit hub between Chicago and Denver, saidJasper.

Alight rail travels from downtown Minneapolis to Mall of America, with two stops at Minneapolis-SaintPaul International Airport adjacent to the mall. I saw some shoppers inside the mall with their carry-on luggage in tow.

In Mall of America’s early days, the transit hub did not exist. The infrastructure wasbuilt around the mall. It remains to be seen ifTriple Five plans to work with local North Jersey officials to build up infrastructure in East Rutherford around American Dream the way it has in Bloomington. A Meadowlands rail spurwillget shoppers and employees to American Dream, and there are a number of other ways the mall hopes to lure shoppers, from ferries andhelicopters tobuses and ride-shares.

Mall of America and its surrounding partners also offer free shuttle services from most hotels in the area, as well as the airport. .

Because the mallis close to several professional sports stadiums, itgets shoppers as a byproduct of sporting events, Renslow said. During my visit,there were several Yankee fans strolling through the mall — the team was in town for aplayoffgame against the Twins at nearby Target Field.

“A lot of times people will stay in Bloomington because they’re close to the airport, and they’re close to here. With the transit hub, they can go to downtown Minneapolis or St. Paul," where thestadiums are,Renslow said. “It makes it super convenient that you can get connected to both downtowns."

Renslow compared the sports atmosphere near Mall of America to MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlandswhere the Giants and Jets play. At Mall of America, I did not see as much traffic as I'm used to seeing on Routes 3, the New Jersey Turnpike and even Route 120— so the cushion between Mall of America and the Minneapolis-areastadiums may work in the mall's favor. In New Jersey, the close proximity between the stadium and the mall sparkeda two-year legal battle between the teams and Triple Five. That lawsuit was eventually settled.

An estimated 40 percent of shoppers at Mall of America are tourist shoppers — those who travel more than 150 miles to get there, Renslow said.

At American Dream, “they’re going to have an international hub on the East Coast with you so close to New York City,” Renslow predicted. “So, they’re going to have the benefit of having a lot of international shoppers really close by."

Mall of America officials say they are eager to see how American Dream fares once it opens. In the meantime, they’re busy working on growing Mall of America. The mall hopes to have its own indoor water park by 2022.

Sound familiar?

Melanie Anzidei is the retail reporter for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to the latest newsaboutstore openingsandclosings in North Jersey’s biggest malls, shopping centers and downtowns,please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email:anzidei@northjersey.comTwitter:@melanieanzidei

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