After years of construction and five billion dollars of investment, the American Dream Mall officially opened adjacent to MetLife Stadium at the end of October. Only 10 miles from campus, the three million square mile mall is opening in four phases.
The first phase marked the opening of the Nickelodean Universe theme park and an NHL-sized hockey rink called The Rink.
On November 27 the DreamWorks Water Park will be opened followed by the Big Snow indoor ski slope on December 5.
The fourth and final phase will be at some point in March. The SEA LIFE Aquarium, LEGOLAND Discovery Center, CMX Luxury Movie Theater, KidZania, over 350 stores and over 100 restaurants will be opened.
As for parking, the American Dream Mall has 11,000 spots next to the 22,000 spots at MetLife Stadium. The MetLife spots will be open for parking on non-event days, but will be $30 during Giants games and $45 during Jets games. These parking rates are for five hours before kickoff and one hour after. No parking is offered overnight.
According to an American Dream Mall representative, “Parking will be free until further notice, we do not know until when. You can always check our website for updates.”Some NJIT students have already gone out to see the mall.
Sara Subbanna, a third year Biology major, said, “The first word that came to mind when I walked into the American Dream Mall was empty…. The Nickelodeon Park, however, was very much open and very busy. It seemed to mostly cater to children below the age of 10, but the indoor rollercoaster was a once-in-a-lifetime sight even for us.”
Aarati Srikumar, a third year Computer Science major said “the American Dream Mall is super nice. It was well thought out and planned and seems like it’s going to be a big mall… I’m excited for stores to open and to actually finally have a mall near NJIT to buy things at.”
“Ironically,” Subbanna added, “it seems that the focus is mostly on the attractions, making the American Dream mall the first non-shopping focused mall I have ever visited. It was a good experience, but if you are over the age of 10, I recommend waiting until the second phase of the mall opens to visit it.”