The $5 billion American Dream Mall finally opened to the public in New Jersey on Friday, making it the second-largest mall in the country after the Mall of America in Minneapolis. The new mall, which was first envisioned in 2003, features a Nickelodeon theme park and an NHL-sized ice skating rink.

Gov. Phil Murphy said that the opening of the mall "represents a significant step in creating both entertainment and retail opportunities for New Jersey families and economic opportunity for our state and region."

The Nickelodeon theme park boasts 35 rides, rollercoasters and attractions, making it the largest indoor theme park in the world. A LEGOland and an indoor water park are also coming to the mall. It will have a 16-story ski slope and 450 retail, food and specialty shopping options by 2020.

The mall is more than three million square feet and is located at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, which also includes the Metlife Sports Stadium, the home of the New York Giants and the New York Jets.

There have long been false starts and delays with the completion of the mall since it was first proposed in 2003. It has also faced criticism from many in the state.

“Why aren’t we using our resources to fix what’s broken for the entire state, as opposed to putting all of our efforts on this monstrosity in the Meadowlands?” Janna Chernetz, New Jersey director of Tri-State Transportation Campaign, an infrastructure and transportation advocacy group, told NorthJersey.com. “It’s too big. They can’t have it fail.”

The mall is being developed by the Triple Five Group, which also developed the Mall of America. Triple Five President and CEO Dan Ghermezian told CNBC earlier this month that the company has "taken what we learned from [Mall of America]. We put it on steroids, went crazy and built American Dream."

Although the mall saw an estimated 2,500 visitors on its opening day, time will tell if the supersized shopping center will be a success. The decline of big-box retailers and the rise of e-commerce companies such as Amazon have caused malls to close across the country.

A 2017 report from Credit Suisse estimates that 25% of U.S. malls will close by 2022. As of 2017, there were 116,000 shopping malls across the country.

RELATED STORIES
Credit Suisse