All Downhill From Here? Officials Expect Xanadu Mountain

Xanadu Officials Assuage Concerns Over Indoor Ski Mountain

New Jersey state officials and execs with Xanadu developers Mills Corp. and Mack-Cali Realty “offered reassurances [Thursday] that the complex would include North America’s first indoor ski mountain,” according to Matthew Futterman of the Newark STAR-LEDGER. The Snow Dome is “considered the signature feature of Xanadu, and despite more than a year of on-again, off-again negotiations and a dispute between” Mills and Mack-Cali and U.K.-based Acer Snowmec, which controls the snow-making technology, “both sides said a deal to build the facility would soon be in place.” Acer Snowmec CEO Malcolm Clulow said in an e-mail, “It is not unusual for negotiations to construct indoor snow centers to last several years — three to five years before they are in contract is the norm. This project is fast track as far as we are concerned.” Clulow said that an agreement between his company and Mills and Mack-Cali “could be complete next week” (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 1/27).