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Xanadu’s growing pains
Triple Five has approached the state about the possibility of making the Xanadu project larger, a key insider said.    

Some observers have said parking and financing are potential challenges to the project, but the insider said plans are to have as much parking as possible on the…

Xanadu’s growing pains
Triple Five has approached the state about the possibility of making the Xanadu project larger, a key insider said.    

Some observers have said parking and financing are potential challenges to the project, but the insider said plans are to have as much parking as possible on the east side of Route 120, and believed “the Triple Five group will have the wherewithal to arrange financing,” in addition to the anticipated use of an Economic Redevelopment and Growth grant.

The most troubling issue is “control of the out-parcels,” said the insider, who said the state would like to find a way to recover control of land currently in the hands of Mack-Cali Realty Corp. and Colony Capital. The state is “going through the legal process, in terms of who controls what.”

If additional land controlled by the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority could be added to the project, “that would be considered also,” the insider said.

Triple Five wants more because the proposed 2.2 million-square-foot Xanadu “is small” compared to the two largest malls in North America — the 4.2-million-square foot Mall of America and the 5.3-million-square-foot West Edmonton Mall — both of which are owned and operated by Triple Five. “Making it bigger is consistent with their business model,” the insider said.

Meanwhile, at least three Triple Five executives are residing in long-term-stay corporate apartments in the Meadowlands area.

Marriage counselors
While state Supreme Court nominee Anne M. Patterson is in limbo, her husband is on the move. This week, James E. Patterson will jump from Graham Curtin to McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter.

He is currently of counsel at Graham Curtin, focusing on labor and employment law on behalf of management. He’ll retain that title and focus at McElroy, Deutsch.

Switchboard lights up
Upon learning PSEG’s lease at 80 Park Plaza, in Newark, expires in 2014, developers came calling, with seven or eight approaching the utility about moving or constructing a new building, not the other way around, according to a source. PSEG is “just listening to offers,” the source said. PSEG currently rents 900,000 square feet from Wells, an Atlanta-based REIT. If the utility wants a new building by 2014, construction must begin soon.

One possibility is a partnership with Dranoff Properties, which has already applied for Urban Transit Hub Tax Credits for a proposed 44-story tower with 328 market-rate apartments at the NJPAC site.

Across pond, into talent pool
A delegation of nine biotech CEOs from the United Kingdom will come to the Hyatt Regency New Brunswick this week to meet with potential investors and partners in the U.K. The event, being organized by Biomart Global, should draw representatives from major pharmaceutical companies, including Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb, as well as clinical research organizations and other industry members.
A similar trade mission back in 2005 led to a three-year partnership between eight universities on both sides of the pond.

Organizers are optimistic that this trip will boost New Jersey’s profile as a top biotech hub in the U.S., but Biomart CEO Steve Reichenstein said he’s concerned about funding for future visits, given the extensive government budget cuts in the U.K., as well as in New Jersey. The British CEOs’ travel was funded by Yorkshire Forward, a British economic development agency.

Without merit
Gov. Chris Christie has renewed his call for a merit pay system for teachers, including in his State of the State address. But a utility industry insider noted with frustration that the Christie administration apparently doesn’t hold incentives in the same regard when it comes to regulated utilities. In PSE&G’s most recent rate case, the Board of Public Utilities disallowed a pay-for-performance program at the state’s largest utility. The program gave bonuses to utility workers for meeting certain targets.

“If there’s no place [for merit pay] in a regulated industry, then there’s no place for merit pay for teachers,” the source said.

An appetite for expansion
It’s a good time to go shopping for restaurants, if you’ve got the means to seize a buying opportunity. Villa Enterprises, in  Morristown, just bought the Office Beer Bar & Grill chain for $4.68 million, and is looking for another acquisition.  

Correction appended: Dranoff Properties is pursuing an Urban Transit Hub Tax Credit for its project at the NJPAC site. The type of incentive was incorrect in an earlier version.

Grapevine reports on the behind-the-scenes buzz in the business community. Contact Editor Sharon Waters at [email protected].