New Jersey's Xanadu Mess.

January 26, 2010 at 2:10 P.M. This essay posted earlier today has been vandalized once already. I will review the work periodically to repair the harm done by N.J.'s hackers by correcting inserted "errors." An advertisement purporting to originate from "Ads by Google" promises or guarantees an outcome in a case. This is something which attorneys are ethically prohibited from doing -- except in New Jersey: "NJ NY Traffic Tickets, we'll reduce or eliminate your points or your money back. [So will you? or won't ya?] http://www.njnytrafficktickets.com/ "

Luckily, I always provided a statement in retainers that made it clear that "no attorney can guarantee the outcome in a legal case."

Peter Applebome, "Possible Second Life for Stalled Xanadu Project? Consider Trip to 'Jersey Shore,'" in The New York Times, January 25, 2010, at p. A12.

"There's a new governor, Christopher J. Christie, who took office on Tuesday, but otherwise the news from New Jersey last week had that familiar ring."

It sure did.

"Guy Catrillo, a former Jersey City Council candidate who took $15,000 in bribes, received 18 months in prison in the first sentencing to grow out of the largest public corruption sting in state history. Leonard Kaiser, a longtime North Arlington mayor and a former freeholder [in every sense!] and member of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion charges on Thursday in connection with campaign funds converted to personal use."

Senator Bob has done his disappearing act pending the outcome of several federal investigations in Hudson County. Many Menendez cohorts and co-conspirators are looking at unpleasant encounters with the feds. What did Senator Menendez know and when did he know it? ("Senator Bob Loves Xanadu!")

"And just when it seemed ready to recede into the New Jersey Turnpike permanent landscape, the Meadowlands Xanadu project resurfaced as the state's other misbegotten reality show. First the chief executive of the sporting goods-outdoors megastore Cabela's, the project's anchor tenant and an indispensable attraction, said it was unlikely ever to open a store there. And on Friday, a report prepared by the Christie administration's transition team said that Xanadu 'appears [irony?] to be a failed business model' and that New Jersey needs to tell the owners to 'open or surrender the property.' ..." ("Senator Bob Loves Xanadu!")

The report is accurate in concluding:

" ... 'There is no leasing plan making material on-site progress. [Nothing's happening because they already stole the money.] The physical activities of construction are at a standstill, if not abandonment. [Everybody went to Atlantic City on the taxpaying chumps.] The construction loan is out of balance. There are no monies readily available to finish construction of public areas or tenant improvements. Most, if not all, of anounced [sic.] major tenants have an 'escape clause' solely dependent on leasing -- or lack thereof.' ..." ("Senator Bob Says -- 'Xanadu and You Are Perfect Together!'")

In other words, if they can't get nobody to go into the deal and lease the stores ahead of time so there is no risk, they won't build nothing and keep the money for what they should have built. This clause is known, prosaically, as the "Mafia exit strategy." One thing that must be said for the mafia is that they have an excellent sense of humor:

"Officials with the project say its business model is sound and it has been delayed because two of its lenders went bankrupt."

You won't see them no more. The financial "end" has been turned over to an investment firm with an office in Naples headed by a C.E.O. known, affectionately, as "Joey the Meat Hook." ("Does Senator Menendez Have Mafia Friends?" and "Senator Bob, the Babe, and the Big Bucks.")

"Mr. Christie has been a critic of the stalled $2 BILLION project. But with a new administration, there will almost certainly be new attention to what can be done to forestall what could be perhaps the worst retail failure ever." ("Corrupt Law Firms, Senator Bob, and New Jersey Ethics" and "New Jersey's Mafia Culture in Law and Politics.")

" ... The options are not attractive: hunker down and hope the project makes more sense in a year or two (or four or five), have the state sue the developers to take back the property, find a really rich new developer or knock it down and forget it."

The worst option is to do nothing and maintain the "business as usual" nightmare which is destroying the state's few fragments of remaining credibility. New Jersey has become a joke and horror story to the big money people all over the world. That needs to change with a new administration. If you've driven through the Turnpike holding your nose, you should know the stink comes from Trenton.

I believe the governor should sue the developer and take back the property, also seize as much of the public revenue as remains in the country, consider alternative uses -- including a possible extention of gaming licenses to the area -- and indict the many fun guys and gals who have stolen millions in this caper. ("New Jersey's Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight.")

What New Jersey (and America) needs is jobs. If jobs can be provided by the gaming industry in Atlantic City, then why not in the Meadowlands? If you speak of organized crime, my answer is that organized crime is already there. At least with regulation and revenue created by casinos ordinary people can benefit from public expenditures and not just political insiders. This move would bring BILLIONS to New Jersey. The tie-in to New York hotels and entertainment would also be substantial, since gamblers like to see a show or explore the area when on vacation. The possible Meadowlands casinos and existing stadium would be twenty minutes from Manhattan.

This band of thieves, allegedly, includes New Jersey's legions of corrupt politicians, like Senator Robert ("BobbyM") Menendez. Anthony Suarez, Esq. still refuses to turn over the bribe money. ($10,000 in cash) Mr. Suarez is expected to be appointed to the county ethics committee of the New Jersey Bar Association. Will a judgeship for Mr. Suarez be far behind?