NUTLEY — If more state money goes into the stalled Xanadu project alongside the New Jersey Turnpike, Gov. Chris Christie wants a piece of the action.

Christie wants part ownership of a $2 billion entertainment and retail mall in the Meadowlands. It would parallel the agreement the state recently implemented with the Revel casino in Atlantic City.

The governor said he hopes to have an agreement on Xanadu worked out by spring, which he said will create jobs.

One of the first priorities should be to change the outside of the building, which he called an offense to the eyes and a reminder of the project's failure.

"They have to change the godawful ugly outside," he said to applause from the crowd. "It's by far the ugliest damn building in New Jersey and maybe America."

Christie said he doesn't know that he would have done Xanadu if he was governor, but the state is working with a developer that's going to make something out of it.



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