The American Dream shopping mall was first proposed as Meadowlands Mills in 1994. The mall, later renamed Meadowlands Xanadu, was nearly complete in 2009 when construction stopped due to a lack of funding. In 2011, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority formalized an agreement with Triple Five Group, which assumed ownership of the mall and renamed it "American Dream". The revised mall plans included an amusement park and a water park. DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg announced in July 2012 that some of the amusement attractions would be themed upon DreamWorks productions. In September 2016, Triple Five announced that the indoor amusement park space would be occupied by Nickelodeon Universe, and that DreamWorks Animation would work in partnership to develop the water park. Triple Five stated in June 2018 that the water park would open in the end of 2019. By November 2018, the mall's vice president of Communications announced that the water park would open in September 2019. However, by that date, DreamWorks Water Park's opening had been delayed to November 27, 2019. In October 2019, surfers began testing the wave pool. Six days before the scheduled opening, Triple Five announced that they were postponing the water park opening again due to undisclosed reasons. On February 25, 2020, The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs announced that 18 of the 27 rides at the park had been inspected and approved for opening, Of the other nine, four have completed engineering review and are ready for inspection and the last five rides are currently in engineering review. On February 27, 2020, DreamWorks Water Park announced its opening date of March 19, 2020, However, due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Jersey during the time the park was supposed to open, its opening was delayed once again.
Attractions
DreamWorks Water Park will occupy six stories adjacent to Nickelodeon Universe American Dream. According to the mall's organizers, DreamWorks Water Park will be the largest indoor water park in the United States, at. There are 40 water slides and about 15 attractions themed toward specific DreamWorks franchises. Specific areas will include an area themed around Shrek's Soggy Swamp; a Kung Fu Panda-themed children's play area called the Kung Fu Panda Zone; and a Madagascar-themed tower called Madagascar Rain Forest with 15 water slides. All of the park's water slides were exclusively developed by ProSlide Technology, a Canadian company. A lazy river will run the length of DreamWorks Water Park. Inside would be a, indoor wave pool, the largest in the world. DreamWorks Water Park will also contain a set of dueling slides, the world's second-tallest body slides, starting from a height of and featuring a free fall. Another attraction would be a "hydro-magnetic roller coaster". These rides are the only rides in DreamWorks Waterpark that are themed towards the How To Train Your Dragon Franchise. The park will include a six-story funnel slide, and an eight-lane racing slide. There will also be thirty-one luxury cabanas within DreamWorks Water Park. The cabanas were built to plans by interior designer Jonathan Adler, a native New Jerseyan. Themed decorations include balloons of Shrek and Donkey from the Shrek movie franchise, Also, Alex and Marty from the Madagascar movie franchise, hanging from the ceiling.
