And while the components of the project may change between now and the time a final agreement is in place, NJSEA officials say the project's timeline will be market-driven, and not contingent on a replacement arena in downtown Newark. Clarifying earlier reports, officials say the existing arena will remain standing, with Mills' and Mack-Cali's Meadowlands Xanadu project being built around it.

At issue is a new home for the NBA Nets and NHL Devils. Both want a new arena in Newark, but if that project lags, both teams' leases at the Continental Airlines Arena runs another five years. And if both teams do ultimately move 10 miles down the highway to Newark, the existing 18,000-seat building could be adapted for other uses, possibly turned into a convention center.

"We do have obligations to our tenants, and we will meet them," NJSEA CEO George Zoffinger explained at a Meadowlands press conference. "Their tenancy runs until 2008, and that was a consideration as far as how the redevelopment will take place."

At the same press conference, Zoffinger also admitted that the Mills/Mack-Cali financial package was a key factor in their selection over proposals by a partnership of Hartz Mountain Industries and Forest City Ratner, and by Westfield Development Group. Among other things, the Mills/Mack-Cali proposal includes an upfront payment of $160 million, most of which would be used to pay off the state agency's $150 million debt load.

As far as the losing proposals, "based on the information released about the other submissions, we are disappointed that the [NJSEA] selection committee did not believe that our [Expo Park proposal] best addressed the selection criteria," says Emanuel Stern, president and COO of the Secaucus, NJ-based Hartz. "We are eager to review the final proposals of our competitors as a means of understanding the basis on which the NJSEA made its decision."