It has been called “the ugliest damn building in New Jersey and maybe America,” has bedeviled three governors and has burned through two developers. Despite $1.9 billion spent, it is still an unfinished pile of concrete, steel and garish pastel panels.

Now, Gov. Chris Christie and the developers of the Mall of America have struck a deal to pour in $1 billion more in hopes of reviving the oft-ridiculed Xanadu Meadowlands complex, according to people involved in the talks.

The developers would not only complete the 2.4-million-square-foot retail and entertainment center, but also greatly expand it, rename it and slap new skin on its reviled exterior.

The deal could give Mr. Christie, a Republican, a chance to say that unlike three Democratic predecessors, he saw the complex through to completion. But it also exposes him to the risks of a project that has become an emblem of the last decade’s real estate excesses and collapse.