Secaucus Mayor Still Seeks $1 Million He Says American Dream Owes Town

SECAUCUS, NJ — Last week, a Bergen County judge ruled that American Dream has to make PILOT payments to East Rutherford, the town where the mall is located.

Mayor Mike Gonnelli said it's his understanding that means the mall also has to pay money to Secaucus.

According to Gonnelli, American Dream owes the town of Secaucus about $1 million. He cited an agreement made in 2011, when the mall was Xanadu at the time, that stated the property known as the Meadowlands Sports Complex had to pay about $13 million to surrounding towns, including Secaucus, in what are called "municipal assistance payments."

Gonnelli said the mall should pay this money to Secaucus because the town of Secaucus sends its police, firefighters and EMS to the mall whenever there is an emergency.

"We are owed this money because of the traffic impacts through our town," said the mayor. "If there's a fire, we're the first ones to go there. The Secaucus Fire Department responded when there was a fire on the ski slop at American Dream."

Secaucus Police also responded when there was a shooting on the second floor of the mall in April 2022. The shooting was a dispute between two men; the victim survived.

But a source close to the topic said there are two sets of payments being disputed here.

"Our understanding is the ruling only applied to payments to East Rutherford, " said a source close to American Dream.

So far, both sides — Secaucus and American Dream — seem to want to play nicely with each other, and keep the money dispute from escalating.

Secaucus has not filed any legal action against the mall seeking the money.

And American Dream has not appealed the judge's ruling.

Gonnelli also said Tuesday:

"It's gonna be tough to get the money out of them. The mall has said to me, 'If we had the money, we'd pay you. We have no money to pay you.' Which I really find hard to believe. Do you think the owners are not making money off that place? There are a lot of good things happening there. And they charge for parking. They must have a million cars in there every weekend paying for parking. I don't know how the stores are doing, but I think they're doing well."

It cost about $5 billion in bonds (borrowed money) to build American Dream. The Bergen Record has been keeping a record of interest payments on that debt that American Dream fails to pay.

Yet another interest payment missed on bonds to build American Dream mall (Bergen Record, Feb. 2025)

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