Using computer animation and a huge screen in a tent outside the Continental Arena, the partners provided a glimpse of how each of the complex's districts will look. Each district will have a lifestyle theme: Sports, Entertainment, Fashion, Children's Education, and Food and Home. Mills, an Arlington, VA-based developer and owner of 28 retail and entertainment destinations that generate combined annual sales of more than $6.6 billion, plans to complete and open all five districts at the same time.

Mack-Cali CEO Mitchell E. Hersh called Xanadu "one of the most exciting projects ever to come to New Jersey." Cranford-based Mack-Cali, owner of 30 million sf of office and flex properties and an upscale Hyatt Regency Hotel on the Jersey City waterfront, plans to build a 12-story, full-service hotel with conference facilities in the Xanadu complex after the five entertainment and retail districts open and the infrastructure work is complete. The REIT would follow the hotel with four 440,000-sf office towers on a schedule determined by demand.

Sports Authority chairman Carl J. Goldberg said the Xanadu complex would generate 20,000 permanent jobs for residents around the region but acknowledged that the project has generated its share of detractors. The objectors include Hartz Mountain Industries, which has filed a lawsuit challenging the award of the development rights to Mills and Mack-Cali. "In the spring of 2007, when the new facilities open, a transformation will take place," Goldberg said.