Berkshire Mall Claims Power Outage Cause For Temporary Closure
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Berkshire Mall says it looks to reopen later this week after losing electricity.
In a post on Facebook, the mall wrote that the closure for the last few days was caused by a power outage. The mall is aiming to re-open Wednesday but has said it is closed until further notice.
"In order to ensure our employees and customers safety, we need to resolve these issues before we can reopen. This is the reason we have not opened the mall. We are not closed forever! We are not being shut down by the sheriff! We have not been seized by the government! We are pushing to reopen by Wednesday if that changes we will update," wrote the mall.
That is consistent with what Board of Selectmen Chairman and Baker Hill Road District appointee John Goerlach has been told. Goerlach said on Monday that the power had been cut to the mall and the generator it is using does not have enough power to pump water to the toilets. The issue has led to multiple days of closure, starting Wednesday afternoon.
"The electricity is the big part of it," Goerlach said.
The lack of bathroom access created a hazard at the mall, leading to the shutdown. The mall has been closed to the public, though a wrestling event was held on the weekend that town officials said was not supposed to have happened there given the situation.
The mall officials had been silent on the closure until Monday evening. The mall closed last Wednesday and has been closed since. Target and Regal Cinemas remain open and Goerlach said efforts are being made to ensure at least Target can operate in the future regardless of what happens with the shopping center..
"They are working on ways to keep Target open," Goerlach said.
Goerlach said Target owns its building but does not have its own water system, which means it would not have fire protection should the rest of the mall go out of business. Goerlach said Target's ownership has been involved in solving any issue that could prevent it from operating independently in the future.
But the writing has been on the wall for years now. Kohan Retail Investment Group has not paid taxes in some two years, according to Town Manager Kelli Robbins. Berkshire Mall Realty Holdings owes the town around $700,000 --though Lanesborough's tax collector has not responded to an email request asking for a precise figure.
Meanwhile, the Baker Hill Road District recently got approval for the sheriff's Office to seize assets to pay $298,146.92 worth of back taxes awarded to the district in a lawsuit. That order was issued on March 13.
Baker Hill Road District attorney Mark Siegars has repeatedly declined to discuss the case over the last two weeks. However, the thought is that if Kohan Retail cannot afford to pay the bill in cash, it could lose control of the mall and property would be sold to pay off the bill. The Board of Selectmen said they do not know if it will come to a payment in lieu of taxes or not. The hope among town officials is that another person will purchase the property and make use of it.
"This guy has not been good to us. It was a poor decision by the bank's part," Goerlach said.
At the same time, Kohan continues to buy malls throughout the country. Earlier this month, he spent $4.65 million on a mall in Maine.
The mall is the town's largest taxpayer, being charged more than $300,000 per year. Selectman Henry "Hank" Sayers said he is concerned that the mall may not last very long, taking that revenue out of town coffers.
"I am really concerned about the taxes ... We have to be very careful on how we spend," Sayers said.
Robbins said Sayers' concerns could be a little premature as the budget process hasn't begun.
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