A massive New Jersey mall that continues to pivot in an entertainment direction will be welcoming another attraction from a major brand during the upcoming year.
Kilburn Live, an experiential event group, has announced a partnership with Hasbro Toy Company that hopes to open a “one of a kind, reimagined arcade platform” dubbed The Game Room inside the American Dream indoor entertainment complex. The venue is slated to feature highly curated midway games and a variety of interactive attractions plus food and beverage options.
Hasbro’s brands to be incorporated into the gaming experience include Monopoly, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Clue, Connect Four, and Candyland. Game Room’s CEO Charlie Keegan says that the facility’s goal is to bring people together in a manner you aren’t seeing in today’s marketplace.
“With the much-loved content from Hasbro and the magnitude of a venue like American Dream, we have a unique opportunity here to bring rich, engaging, interactive experiences to life, and in the process, re-imagine the destination entertainment concept,” Keegan says.
The Game Room, set to open sometime next year, is the latest positive development for the long-beleaguered American Dream complex. The 3.3-million-square-foot facility, located in East Rutherford across from MetLife Stadium, finally opened last year after a shade under two decades of construction.
While the facility currently hosts about 130 stores including heavyweights like Saks Fifth Avenue and Tiffany, the current economic conditions have sparked a change in strategy. American Dream is in the process of shifting to a roughly 70 percent entertainment model, a marked departure from the retail-heavy complex envisioned when the project began.
Openings at American Dream last year included a Nickelodeon Universe facility and a DreamWorks Water Park. A Sea Life Aquarium and Legoland Discovery Center made their debut in May, joining other attractions like Big Snow and several mini-golf courses.
A giant observation wheel is currently under construction outside American Dream and the initially panned exterior façade has been completely replaced. It’s not all good news, though, as Triple Five, the Canadian company who owns the mall, defaulted on a $1.2 billion construction loan earlier this year.
Lenders took a minority stake in two other malls owned by Triple Five as collateral to keep American Dream afloat, getting a piece of the Mall of America and Alberta’s West Edmonton Mall. 49% of profits from those facilities will go to the American Dream lenders until the mall returns to profitability.
